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RAMBLES IN NORMANDY 



WORKS OF 

FRANCIS MILTOUN 

The following, each i vol., library ismo, 

cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. 

Net, $2.00; postpaid, $2.16 

Rambles in Normandy 
Rambles in Brittany 
The Cathedrals and Churches of 
the Rhine 



The followittg, each i vol., library i2mo, 
. cloth, gilt; top, profusely illustrated. 
Postpaid, $2 JO 

The Cathedrals of Northern 

France 
The Cathedrals of Southern 

France 

L. C. PAGE l^ COMPANY 

New England Building, Boston, Mass. 




Mont St. Michel 



{See page sS3) 



Rambles 

in 

NORMANDY 

■■ ' f. 
By Francis Miltoun^ ^^^^4 

With Many Illustrations 

By Blanche M c M a n u s 



7>t.<5u>t.<2.-^^^-'2K' 7>vX6-tA/v^'"T 



■'V ^- t4=s<i/-.'*--C.- ' 




r 



Boston 
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

1906 



OCT 30 m^ 



Copyj-ight, igo^ 

By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 

All rights reserved 



Published October, 1905 



COLONIAL PRESS 
Electrotyped and Prhiied by C. H. Sitnonds &' Co. 
^ _ Bosto7i, U.S.A. 



APOLOGIA 



The following pages are not intended to be 
a record of all the historic and picturesque 
features of the ancient province of Normandy. 
The most that is claimed is that they are the 
record of a series of ramblings in and off the 
beaten tourist track, with the addition of a 
few facts of history and romance, which could 
not well be ignored. 

The scheme of the book as set forth in the 
table of contents will explain this plan far 
better than any author's apology; and will 
also explain why a more ample guide-book 
treatment .s not given to the cities and large 
towns such as Eouen, the ancient Norman cap- 
ital; Caen, the capital of Lower Normandy; 
and Dieppe, and Evreux. All this, and more, 
with much information of a varying nature 
from that set forth herein, is given by Joanne, 
Baedeker, and the local guide-books, which in 
France are unusually numerous and trust- 
worthy. 



vi Apologia 

These rambles, of the author and artist, ex- 
tending over some years of wanderings and 
residence within the province, are, then, merely 
the record of personal experiences, of no very 
venturesome or exciting nature, combined with 
those half-hidden facts which only come to one 
through an intimate acquaintance. 

To this has been added a certain amount of 
practical travel-talk, which, for some inexpli- 
cable reason, seems to have been omitted from 
the guide-books; and a series of appendices, 
maps, and plans, which should furnish the stay- 
at-home and the traveller alike with those facts 
of relative importance in connection with a 
favoured land often not at hand or readily 
accessible. Nor is there any attempt at ex- 
haustiveness. On the contrary, the matter has 
been condensed as much as possible. 

The illustrations are not so much a complete 
pictorial survey of this delightful part of old 
France, as an effort to depict the varying 
moods and characteristics which will best show 
its contrast to the other provinces; always 
with an eye to the picturesque and pleasing 
aspect of a landscape, a detail of architecture, 
or the quaint dress and customs of the people. 



CONTENTS 



OHAPTBB 




PAOB 




PART I. 






I. 


Introductory 




3 


11. 


The Roads of Frakce . 


, , 


20 


III. 


The Forests of France 




38 


IV. 


A Travel Chapter . . . 
PART II. 


• 


49 


I. 


The Province and Its People . 


, , 


73 


II. 


Norman Industries 




101 


III. 


Manners and Customs op the Country-side 


113 


IV. 


The Chateaux of Other Days . 


, 


136 


V. 


Some Types of Norman Architecture 


150 




PART HI. 






I. 


The Seine Valley — Preamble . 




157 


n. 


The Skine below Rouen 




171 


III. 


The Seine from Rouen to Pont de l'Arche 


203 


IV. 


The Seine from Pont de l'Arche to La 






Roche - Guyon .... 




229 


V. 


In the Valley of the Eure 




262 


VI. 


The Pays de Caux 




286 


VII. 


The Coast Westward of the Seine 




314 


vin. 


The Cotentin .... 




361 


IX. 


The Norman Country-side. 




393 




Appendices 




427 




Index 




443 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Mont St. Michel {See page 385). 

A Diligence 

RoAB Placques, Touring Club 

Road Signs in France 

A Berlins de Poste . 

Explanation of the Maps of 

Lyons ~ LE - For ET 

Chapelle Ste. Catherine 

Map of Normandy 

A Woman of Normandy . 

Harvest- time in Normandy 

Norman Horses ... 

Raising the Sugar - beet . 

A Norman Farmhouse 

A Peasant's Cart 

Donjon of Arques (Diagram) 

Chateau Gaillard, Les Andelys 

Ancient Manor d'Argouges 

An Inn by the Seine 

Cape de la Hi:vE 

Towboats on the Seine . 

Quay of Caudebec-en-Caux 

JUMlfeGES .... 

The Arms of Agnes Sorel 

A Rouen Caf^ . 

Rouen from Bon Secours 



France 



Etat Major 
facing 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 
21 
28 
30 
33 
36 
44 
47 
48 
84 



facing 

facing 

facing 104 

facing 106 

. Ill 

facing 128 

. 134 

. 138 

facing 138 

. 146 

facing 158 

. 173 

. 181 

facing 184 

facing 188 

. 189 

. 199 

facing 210 



List of Illustrations 



PAOK 

Some Seine Sketches 214 

Pont de l'Arche facing 222 

Ancient Plan of Chateau Gaillard . . . 239 

The Seine at Petit Andelys . . . facing 240 

Collegiate Church, Ecouis . . . facing 244' 

GisoRS facing 246 

A Seine Hamlet ....... 249 

The Two Chateaux of La Roche -Guyon facing 260. 

H6tel du Grand Cerf, Louviers . . facing 264 

Garennes facing 272 

Song of the Pays de Caux (Music) . . . 287 

A Pigeon -house 289 

The Harbour of Fecamp .... facing 294 

The Cliffs of Yport .... facing 296 

Tr^port facing 304 

A Cauchoise of Yvet6t 312 

HoNFLEUR facing 318 

In the Cider -apple Country 323 

A Norman Cider -press .... facing 326 

Dives - sur - Mer facing 334 

Tower of Gens d'Armes 338 

Cloister of the Capucin Convent, Caen facing 340 

TiNCHEBRAY 343 

Walled Farm 346 

Port - en - Bessin 348 

Old Wooden Houses, Lisieux . . . facing 350 

Chateau of Falaise (Plan) 351 

Donjon of Falaise . . . . . facing 352 

Street under the Church of the Trinity, Falaise 356 

A CoTENTiNE facing 360 

Millet's Home, Gruchy 365 

The Rock of Granville .... facing 380 

Bay of Mont St. Michel (Map) . . . . 384 

Mont St. Michel in 1657 385 



List of Illustrations 



XI 



Porte du Roi, Mont St. Michel 

Clock Tower, Vire .... 

In the Church of Ste. Foy, Conches 

RUGLES .... 

The Apiary of La Trappe 

Chateau d'Alen^on . 

Argentan .... 

Market-place, Neubourg 

Abbey of Bec - Hellouin . 

Interior of Abbey of Bernay 

The Provinces of France (Map) 

Itinerary of Normandy, I. (Map) 

Itinerary of Normandy, II. (Map) 

Profile Map of Normandy 

The Coast of Normandy (Map) 

Natural Curiosities of Normandy (Map) 

Architectural Curiosities of Normandy (M 

EoAD Map, Normandy Coast . 

Road Map, the Seine Valley . 

Road Map, Across Normandy . 



facing 
facing 
facing 



ap) 



PAGE 

386 
392 
400 
403 
408 
413 
416 
417 
420 
424 
427 
433 
434 
435 
436 
437 
438 
439 
440 
441 



PART I. 



RAMBLES IN 
NORMANDY 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTOBT 

** One doubles his span of life," says George 
Moore, " by knowing well a country not his 
own. ' ' 

Un pays aime is a good friend, indeed, to 
whom one may turn in time of strife, and none 
other than Normandy — unless it be Brit- 
tany — has proved itself a more safe and 
pleasant land for travellers. 

When one knows the country well he recog- 
nizes many things which it has in common with 
England. Its architecture, for one thing, bears 
a marked resemblance ; for the Norman build- 
ers, who erected the magnificent ecclesiastical 
edifices in the Seine valley during the middle 

3 



Rambles in Normandy 



ages, were in no small way responsible for 
many similar works in England. 

It is possible to carry the likeness still 
further, but the author is not rash enough to 
do so. The above is doubtless sufficient to 
awaken any spirit of contention which might 
otherwise be latent. 

Some one has said that the. genuine traveller 
must be a vagabond; and so he must, at least 
to the extent of taking things as he finds them. 
He may have other qualities which will endear 
him to the people with whom he comes in con- 
tact; he may be an artist, an antiquarian, or 
a mere singer of songs ; — even if he be 
merely inquisitive, the typical Norman peasant 
makes no objection. 

One comes to know Normandy best through 
the real gateway of the Seine, though not many 
distinguish between Lower Normandy and Up- 
per Normandy. Indeed, not every one knows 
where Normandy leaves off and Brittany be- 
gins, or realizes even the confines of the ancient 
royal domain of the kings of France. 

Rouen, however, the capital of the ancient 
province, is, perhaps, better known by casual 
travellers from England and America than any 
other city in France, save Paris itself. This 
is as it should be; for no mediaeval city of 



Introductory- 



Europe has more numerous or beautiful 
shrines left to tell the story of its past than 
the Norman metropolis. Some will remember 
Rouen as a vast storehouse of architectural 
treasures, others for its fried sole and duckling 
Rouennais. Le vin du pays, cidre, or calvados 
goes well with either. 

How many Englishmen know that it is in the 
tongue of the ancient Normans that the British 
sovereign is implored to approve or reject the 
laws of his Parliament? This is beyond dis- 
pute, though it appears not to be generally 
known; hence it is presumed that the land of 
the Conqueror is not wholly an overtilled field 
for Anglo-Saxon tourists. 

The formula for the approval of the laws 
promulgated by the British Parliament to-day 
is: for the laws of finance, ^' Le Roy re- 
mercie ses hon sujets, accept e leur benevolence f 
et ainsi le veult "; for laws of general pur- 
port, " Le Roy veult "; for a law of local 
interest, '' Soit fait comme il est desire." 
And finally, when the royal endorsement is with- 
held, the formula is, '^ Le Roy s'avisera." 

In the House of Commons, only within the 
last year (1905), the First Lord of the Treas- 
ury rose to abolish this inexplicable usage, the 
employment of a foreign tongue. Mr. Balfour 



Rambles in Normandy 



replied with a refusal based on historical tra- 
dition: '' French was the language of state 
in England by right of the Norman Conquest." 
It was in 1706 that the House of Lords forbade 
the use of French in parliamentary and judi- 
cial debates. The only chief of state in Eng- 
land who used the English tongue exclusively 
was Cromwell. 

The full significance of the spirit of relation- 
ship between Normandy and England to-day 
is admirably brought out in the expression of 
sentiment which was advanced on the occasion 
of the Norman fetes held at Rouen in the sum- 
mer of 1904, when the following address was 
despatched to King Edward at Buckingham 
Palace by the society that had the fetes in 
charge : 

*' To His Majesty, Edwaed VII.: 
" With the deepest joy the ' Souvenir Nor- 
mand ' respectfully begs your Majesty to ac- 
cept its greetings from the banks of the Seine, 
the river whence your glorious ancestor, Will- 
iam, of the stock of Viking Rollo, set out to 
found the great British Empire under Norman 
kings. We thank Providence for the happy 
tokens of your royal efforts to bring about 
an understanding between the two Normandies, 



Introductory 



to secure the peace of the world through the 
Normans. May God preserve your Majesty; 
may God grant long life and prosperity to the 
King and Queen of England and to the English 
Normandy. ' ' 

Normandy is by no means limited to the 
lower Seine valley, but for the purposes of the 
journeys set forth herein it is the gateway by 
which one enters. Normandy is the true land 
of the cider-apple, though there are other places 
where, if it is not more abundant, it is of better 
quality, or at least it has more of the taste of 
those little apples which grow on trees hardly 
larger than scrub or sagebrush. 

All so-called cidre in Normandy is not cider ; 
most of it is boisson Normande. You buy it 
in little packets, at a comparatively small price, 
and add water to suit the taste; only you don't 
do it yourself — the landlord of your hotel 
does it to suit his taste, or his ideas of good 
business. 

A little farther south, on the conimes of the 
plain of Beauce, where Normandy ended and 
the ancient royal domain began, you get an- 
other sort of vin du pays. 

" Du cidre ou du vin? " says the g argon, or 
more likely it is a bonne in these parts. '* Du 



Rambles in Normandy 



vin, s'il vous plait," you answer, anxious to see 
what the new variety may be. When you get 
it, you find it a peculiar concoction, resembling 
the wines of Touraine, Bordeaux, Burgundy, 
or the Midi not a whit. Yet it is not cidre, 
though it well might be from its look, and 
somewhat from its taste. '^ C'est petit cousin 
de la piquette et certainement cousin du cidre/' 
volunteered an amiable commercial traveller, 
in reply to a query. 

A small boy was once asked by a patroniz- 
ing elder what books he used in studying 
geography and history, and he answered, curtly, 
'' I use no books, I go to places." That boy 
was very fortunate. 

If the traveller is looking for information 
and incidental pleasure, he is in a class quite 
apart from the mere pleasure-seeker; and he 
ought, if he would profit from his travels to 
the fullest extent, to be able to increase his 
power of observation as he widens his horizon. 
He is often unable to do so, and goes about 
deploring the absence of pie and buttered toast. 

With visitors to Normandy, the case is in no 
wise different, in spite of the fact that the well- 
known roads from Havre or Dieppe to Paris, 
via the Seine valley, are a little better known 
than any other part of France. 



Introductory 9 

There are still but two wholly unspoiled spots 
in all the Seine valley, Les Andelys and La 
Roche-Guy on; and it is doubtful if they ever 
will become spoiled by tourists within the lives 
of the present generation. The railway has 
only recently come to Les Andelys, and the 
two pretty little towns, with their stupendous 
Chateau Gaillard, are even now not popular 
resorts, though the French, English, and Amer- 
ican travellers are coming yearly in increasing 
numbers, while La Roche-Guyon — a few miles 
farther up the river — is even less well-known. 

Mention is made of this simply because it 
serves to emphasize the fact that all highroads 
are not well-worn roads, and that there is 
a wealth of unlooked-for attraction to be 
gathered wherever one may roam. 

Of the theorists who have attempted to class 
the Normans with the Danes, the least said the 
better. To rank the Norman-French and the 
Dane together, as the pioneers of feudalism, 
is to ignore the fact that it was the Normans 
who were the real civilizers of Britain. 

The fact stands boldly forth, however, that the 
ancestors of Norman William, who afterward 
became England's king, came direct and un- 
diluted from Scandinavia, while the Norman 



10 Rambles in Normandy 

Frenchman of later times was a distinct de- 
velopment of his own environment. 

It is well enough to claim that the English 
nobility is descended from the Norman barons. 
At any rate it seems plausible, and one may 
well agree with those who have said that no 
Upper House of Lords could ever have been 
conceived by the Anglo-Saxons. History dem- 
onstrates the fact that the idea of the English 
House of Lords, as an appointment by the 
Crown, was of Norman conception, and alien 
to Anglo-Saxon tendencies. 

It seems, perhaps, superfluous to reiterate 
these facts here, but they are so commonly 
overlooked by the traveller in France that it 
is well to recall that it was the Norman who 
governed Britain, and not members of the 
Saxon hierarchy who afterward became kings 
of France. 

It is with reason that the Norman speaks so 
fondly of Jersey, Guernsey, and their sister 
isles. This is explained, of course, by the 
geographers, and one should, perhaps, be char- 
itable, and allow for the spirit of patriotism, 
when the Frenchman calls the Channel Islands 
Les lies Normandes. 

The people there are in many ways as French 
as French can be. Their laws and their courts 



Introductory 11 



make use of the French tongue, and in most, if 
not quite all, respects the common character- 
istics are French. 

The Frenchman himself, too, is often very 
fond of them, in spite of their alien allegiance. 
He calls them " tres curieusement pittoresques, 
feodals, sauvages, en meme temps que tres 
civilisees, les lies Normandes sont un anachro- 
nisme, loyales a la couronne anglaise, mais avec 
une autonomie une veritable paradoxe de I'his- 
toire politique/' 

From this he generally goes on to say that 
** they are the Canada of Europe, a province 
of France, which continues the life of the 
French under the Protectorate of the English. ' ' 

The law of Jersey is that of the '' Coutume 
Normande/^ In Jersey the King of England 
reigns not; he is Due de Normandie; the 
magistrates condemn or acquit '' en parler 
Normand "; the code is Norman; the admin- 
istration Norman. To London the habitant 
comes only as a resident, as does a Maltese, 
or a Canadian. 

The Journal Offtciel of Jersey is written in 
Norman. In it one reads such announcements 
as follows: 

" A vendre, une vache, ainsi qu'une piano, 
les deux en bon etat.^' 



12 Rambles in Normandy 



Or again: 

" On demande une institutrice, et on cederait 
un vieux cheval, pour un prix peu eZefe." 

Throughout the islands the sentiment is 
decidedly republican, or if not republican is 
at least Norman. 

It is the English king who is duke, but it 
is the descendant of RoUon who reigns. 

All French provinciaux are patriotic beyond 
belief to the outsider. The Gascon is always a 
Gascon, and the Norman is always a Norman. 

They were masterful folks, those early Nor- 
mans and the Northmen before them. Rollon, 
the first Duke of Rouen ; Rurik, the first Czar of 
Russia; Eric le Roux, the first colonizer of 
Iceland and Greenland; Leif Ericson, the first 
discoverer of America and the colonizer of 
Vineland. 

Of the Normans, Guillaume, son of Herleve, 
Robert le Diable, and Robert Guiscard de 
Hauteville were kings of Sicily. Cabot of Jer- 
sey was the discoverer of Canada, and Jean 
Cousin of Honfleur was the pilot of Christo- 
pher Columbus. Binot Lipaulmier de Gonne- 
ville and Jean Denys were the discoverers of 
Newfoundland, of Brazil, and of the Canaries ; 
the Chevalier de la Salle was the discoverer 



Introductory 13 



of the Mississippi; and Champlain was the 
founder of Quebec. 

Among other great discoverers and naviga- 
tors are Jean de Bethencourt, Jean Ango, Du- 
quesne, Dume, Tourville de Bricqueville, and 
Dumont d'Urville. 

In letters and art Normandy has held a proud 
position. 

In poesy stand forth the names of Pierre 
Corneille and his brother Thomas, Alain Char- 
tier, Olivier Basselin, Jean Marot, Jean Ber- 
tand, Malherbe, — ■ sometimes called ' ' the 
father of modern poetry, ' ' — Segrais, Mal- 
fiatre, Castel, Madeleine de Scudery, Ben- 
serade, the Abbe de Chaulieu, Bernardin St. 
Pierre, Casimir Delavigne, and his rival in 
dramatic verse, Ancelot. The historians and 
savants, Fontenelle, Huet, and Mezeray, St. 
Evremond, Dacier, and Burnouf, Armand 
Carrel, Octave Feuillet, Louis Bouilhet, Gus- 
tave Flaubert, and Guy de Maupassant. 

Among others of Normandy's great names 
are: Fresnel, the inventor of the lenticular 
lanterns for lighthouses, and Conte, the in- 
ventor of crayons bearing his name. 

Among the artists are Jouvenet, Restout, 
Nicolas Poussin, Gericault, Millet, and Chap- 
lin, and the sculptors, Anguier and Harivel- 



14 Rambles in Normandy 

Durocher, the composers, Boieldieu and Auber, 
and the actor Melingue. 

A great man in industry and statesmanship 
was Eichard Waddington, while still greater 
and more ancient names, famed in history, 
round off the list : William the Conqueror, the 
Minister Le Tellier, Marechal de Coigny, Char- 
lotte Corday, Le Brun, the Due de Plaisance, 
and Dupont de I'Eure. 

Canada was discovered and colonized by the 
Norman fishermen, sailors, carpenters, and 
masons of the fleet of Champlain from Hon- 
fleur, Dieppe, and Havre. 

The regard which the Norman has for things 
American has generally been overlooked. But 
one need not go so far as to say, as has been 
done by Norman writers, that the present cos- 
mopolitan population of America is made up 
mostly of the Scotch, the Irish, and the Nor- 
mans of England and France — the descend-- 
ants of the people whom William and his sixty 
thousand companions organized in social order. 

M. Hector Fabre has said that, while all the 
colonists of New France — actually Canada — 
were not Normans, it was a curious phenome- 
non that all the children born in Canada were 
Norman. 

The St. Lawrence, which the French still 



Introductory 15 



call the Saint Laurent, is to them as Norman 
as the Mississippi or the Seine, and it is rea- 
sonable to presume that they still regard North 
America as '' La Normandie Transatlantique. " 

All this is with some justification, if we go 
back as far as the Northmen, as the good people 
of Boston, in America, well know, for it is they 
who have supplanted the Genoese admiral by 
Leif, the son of Eric, and have even erected a 
statue to him. 

With all this, then, in view, may the writer be 
pardoned for presuming that Normandy is not a 
worn-out touring-ground, nor one of which there 
is nothing new to tell. The author wishes to 
repeat, however, that no more has been at- 
tempted herein than to gather together such 
romantic and historical facts as have readily 
suggested themselves to him and to the artist, 
who have each of them lived many months in 
the very heart of that old province between 
Paris and the sea. 

Normandy is in many respects the ideal of a 
delightful tour for those who would not go fur- 
ther afield, or who wish to know still more of 
those conventional touring-grounds of which, 
truth to tell, but little is known by those tourists 
personally conducted in droves, who do a water- 
ing-place in the morning, take their lunch at 



16 Rambles in Normandy 



some riverside shrine, and get to a cathedral 
town in time to nibble at its masterpiece before 
the hour of opening, which in Normandy, 
Eouen in particular, is early. 

The great rhomboid which bounds the France 
of to-day, enclosed, before the Revolution, 
thirty-three great provinces, of which, save 
Guyenne, Gascogne, Languedoc, and Bre- 
tagne, Normandy was the largest, and certainly 
the most potently strenuous in the life of the 
times. 

Surrounded by Picardy, the He de France 
(the domaine-royal of the Capets), by Maine, 
and Bretagne, and bordered on the north by 
La Manche, it was only joined to France by 
confiscation by Philippe-Auguste, from Jean 
Sans-Terre, some two hundred or more years 
after the advent of the third race of kings. 

To-day it forms the Department of the Lower 
Seine, Eure, Le Calvados, La Manche, and a 
part of L'Orne. 

Normandy was once doubtless a land of the 
Celts, who gradually withdrew to Bretagne. In 
time it became a part of Roman Gaul. The 
part once known as Neustria was ceded by 
Charles the Simple in 911 to the Norman de- 
scendants of Rollon, from whom it took its new 
name, Normandy. 



Introductory 17 



The Dukes of Normandy became, after the 
conquest, Kings of England, and in 1154 the 
Counts of Anjou and of Maine inherited, 
through Henry Plantagenet, the throne of 
England, thus giving that country a line of 
Angevine kings. 

This strong-growing power of the Norman 
dukes was broken by Philippe-Auguste, who 
conquered Normandy in 1204. 

During the Hundred Years' War the Eng- 
lish maiiy times invaded Normandy, but were 
finally driven out by the redoubtable Du- 
guesclin. 

Henry V. invaded France and took Harfleur 
in 1415, occupying all of the north and north- 
west of France. Charles VII. victoriously en- 
tered Rouen, and at Formigny again achieved 
the conquest of Normandy by the French. 
Louis XI. ceded Normandy to his brother. 

Many ancient fiefs were contained in this 
great province, but the Comte d'Evreux, Comte 
d'Alengon, Comte d'Eu, and the Duche de 
Penthievre were united definitely with the 
kingdom in 1789. 

Previous to 1789 the ancient military govern- 
ment of the province was divided into Rouen, 
Caen, and Alengon. 

By its reconstruction into departments the 



18 Rambles in Normandy 

province lost two bishoprics, which were not re- 
established by the Concordat, Lisieux and 
Avranches; and the latter lost, as well, nearly 
all vestiges of its former beautiful cathedral, 
before which Henry II. of England expiated 
his crime of the murder of Becket. 

The Land of the Conqueror, trod by some of 
the greatest men the world has known in me- 
diseval and modern times, has not, even now, 
in spite of its associations and accessibility, 
become a world-worn resort. 

Students of art, architecture, and history, and 
a few tourists from London, who demand a 
change of scene in a near-by foreign land, reach 
its shores between Whitsun and the August 
Bank Holiday ; but, popular supposition to the 
contrary, the traffic receipts of the steamship 
and railway companies do not indicate any- 
thing like a generous patronage of this ideal 
land for a present-day sentimental journey. 

Normandy stands to-day as it stood in the 
middle ages, with many memorials and remi- 
niscences of its feudal pomp and glory, with 
here and there a monument to Rollon, William 
the Conqueror, or Richard the Lion-hearted. 

As it was three centuries or more ago, teem- 
ing with many a monument, cathedral, abbey, 
fortress, and chateau, so Normandy is to-day, 



Introductory 19 



except for the ruin wrouglit by the bloody hand 
of revolution. In spirit Normandy is still 
mediaeval, and here and there are evidences of 
the even more ancient Roman or Celtic remains. 
History gives the facts, and the guide-books 
conventional information. The most that the 
present work attempts is to recount the results 
of more or less intimate acquaintance with the 
land and its people, now and again bringing to 
light certain matters not to be met with in a 
briefer sojourn. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ROADS OF FRANCE 

One of the joys of France to-day, as in- 
deed it ever has been, is travel by road. The 
rail has its advantages, but it also has its dis- 
advantages, whereas the most luxurious trav- 
eller by road, even if he be snugly tucked away 
in a sixty-horse royal Mercedes, is nothing more 
than an itinerant vagabond, and France is the 
land above all others for the sport. 

As an industry to be developed and fostered, 
France early recognized the automobile as a 
new world-force, and the powers that be were 
convinced that the way should be smoothed for 
those who would, with the poet Henley, sing 
the song of speed. 

With their inheritance of magnificent road- 
ways, this was not difficult; for the French 
and mine host — or his French counterpart, who 
is really a more up-to-date individual than he is 
usually given the credit of being — rose gal- 
lantly to the occasion as soon as they saw the 

20 



The Roads of France 



21 



return of that trade which had grown beauti- 
fully less since the passing of the malle-poste 
and the diligence. 

The paternalism of the French government 
is a wonderful thing. It not only stands sponsor 
for the preservation and restoration of histor- 
ical monuments, — great churches, chateaux, 
and the like, — but takes a genial interest in 
automobilism as well. 




DH-IGrE.NCt 



Hills have been levelled and dangerous cor- 
ners straightened, level crossings abolished or 
better guarded ; and, where possible, the dread 
caniveaux — or water-gullies — which cross the 
roadway here and there have been filled up. 
More than all else, the execrable paved road, 
for which France has been noted, is fast being 
done away with. It is perhaps worth mention- 
ing that the chief magistrate himself is not an 
automobilist ; which places him in practically 
a unique position among the rulers of Europe. 



22 Rambles in Normandy 

At Bayeux, at Caen, at Lisieux, and at 
Evreux, in Normandy, one is on that great 
national roadway which runs from Paris to 
Cherbourg through the heart of the old prov- 
ince. This great roadway is numbered XIII. 
by the government, which considers its high- 
ways a national property, and is typical of all 
others of its class throughout France. 

The military roads of France are famous, 
and automobilists and some others know their 
real value as a factor in the prosperity of a 
nation. 

It is not as it was in 1689, when Madame de 
Sevigne wrote that it took three days to travel 
from Paris to Rouen. Now one does it, in an 
automobile, in three hours. 

From Pont Audemer she wrote a few days 
later to Madame de Grignan : ' ' We slept yester- 
day at Rouen, a dozen leagues away." Con- 
tinuing, she said : ' ^ I have seen the most beau- 
tiful country in all the world; I have seen all 
the charms of the beautiful Seine, and the most 
agreeable prairies in the world. ... I had 
known nothing of Normandy before. . . . I was 
too young to appreciate." 

Certainly this is quite true of Normandy, now 
as then, and to travel by road will demonstrate 
it beyond doubt. 



The Roads of France 23 

The roads in France were, for several cen- 
turies after the decline and fall of the Roman 
power, in a very dilapidated state, as the re- 
sult of simple neglect. Louis XIV., in the latter 
part of the seventeenth century, made some 
good roads in the vicinity of Paris ; but it was 
not until the end of the eighteenth century 
(1775) that the real work of road-making 
throughout the country began. It was in the 
time of Napoleon I. that most of the great 
national roads, which run through the country 
in various directions, were constructed. These 
roads were made largely for military purposes, 
and connect the chief towns and the French 
frontiers with Paris. 

Besides the leading roads, there are also 
many other roads varying in degrees of im- 
portance, classed as follows : 

(1) Routes Nationales. Constructed and 
maintained by the national government. 

(2) Routes Departmentales, Constructed 
and maintained by the several departments at 
national expense. 

(3) Chemins Vicinaux de Grande Communi- 
cation. Passing through and connecting two 
or more communities, maintained and served 
by them, aided by government grant. 

(4) Chemins Vicinaux de Moyenne Communi- 



24 Rambles in Normandy 

cation. Similar to Class III., but of less im- 
portance, and maintained at the cost of the 
people, but controlled by the department. 

(5) Chemins de Petite Communication. Of 
still less importance, maintained by the com- 
munities separately under the supervision of 
government engineers. 

(6) Chemins Ruraux. Roads of the least 
importance, and wholly controlled and main- 
tained by the people without any interference 
from the government officials. 

The art of road-building in France is only 
excelled by that of the Romans, and they un- 
fortunately lived before the days of high-speed 
traffic and rubber-shod wheels. 

The great national roads, usually tree-bor- 
dered, average but three in one hundred grade, 
the departmental roads four in one hundred, 
and the Chemins de Grande Communication 
five in one hundred. In all except very hilly 
districts, where of course there are deviations, 
this is the rule. 

Napoleon's idea was that these national high- 
ways were essentially a military means of com- 
munication, and as such they were laid out 
with a certain regularity and uniformity. For- 
merly they were largely paved with stone blocks. 
Who, among those who have travelled exten- 



The Roads of France 25 



sively by road in France, does not know the 
execrable pavements of the populated neigh- 
bourhoods through which these highways run? 
To-day these are largely disappearing. The 
roads in France suffer more from drought than 
from wet. They dry quickly after rain, and, 
in order to shade and protect the surface from 
the dry heat of summer, the planting of trees 
on the sides of the roads has been largely 
adopted. As showing the importance that has 
been attached to this matter, royal decrees were 
formerly passed, determining the manner of 
planting, the kind of trees to be used, and the 
penalties to be imposed on those who injured 
them. 

Most of the roads of France, even the na- 
tional roads, cross the railways on the level 
instead of over bridges. There are gate- 
keepers and gates for the protection of the 
-public. At many of them the signalling is of 
a very primitive kind, and yet there are few 
accidents. 

The history of the roads of France is the 
history of the nation since the conquest of an- 
cient Gaul by the legions of Caesar. 

The Voie Auguste was the first, and bound 
Lyons with Italy by the Col du Petit St. Ber- 



26 Rambles in Normandy 

nard, which to-day is actually National Road 
No. 90. 

Agrippa made Lyons the centre of four great 
diverging roads; the first by the valley of the 
Ehine and the Meuse ; the second by Autun to 
the port of Genosiacum, to-day Boulogne-sur- 
mer; the third by Auvergne toward Bordeaux; 
and the fourth by the valley of the Rhone to 
Aix and Marseilles. 

From the decadence of the Western Empire 
and the invasion of the Barbarians, these fine 
roads were practically abandoned. Many good 
bridges were destroyed, and the work of road- 
building ceased completely, the people finding 
their way about by mere trails. 

With the advent of Christianity in Gaul there 
was a partial renaissance of these Roman 
roads, thanks to great fairs and pilgrimages. 
The monastic orders became in a way the 
parents and protectors of bridges and roads, 
with St. Benezet at their head, who in the 
twelfth century constructed the wonderful Pont 
d 'Avignon, which still stands. 

The general system of the present-day na- 
tional roads follows largely the old Roman 
means of communication, as well as those 
traced by nature, along the banks of rivers and 
on the flanks of mountains and in the valleys 



The Roads of France 27 

lying between. The great national roads of 
France form a class by themselves, independent 
of the departmental and communal roads. They 
approximate forty thousand kilometres, and run 
at a tangent from the capital itself and between 
the chief cities of the eighty odd departments 
which make up modern France. 

In general, the designation of the road, its 
number, and classification are indicated on the 
kilometre marks with which every important 
road in France is marked. 

The national roads, having their origin at 
Paris, have their distances marked from Notre 
Dame, and certain of the secondary cities are 
taken for the point of departure of other great 
roads. 

A ministerial decree, put forth in 1853, de- 
cided that the national roads should have 
their distances marked from their entrance into 
each department, a regulation which has been 
followed nearly everywhere, except that dis- 
tances are still reckoned from Paris on most 
of the great highroads of Normandy and Brit- 
tany. 

Guide-posts are placed at all important cross- 
roads and pattes-d'oie (a goose-foot, literally). 

An iron plaque, painted white and blue, be- 
side the road, shows without any possibility 



28 



Rambles in Normandy 



of mistake the commune in which it is situated, 
the next important place in either direction, 
and frequently the next town of considerable 



^ 







%\ 



CASSIS 



iMihiiiUJiiiiMiiaima 



e. POSTED 
DE SECQURS 



RALENTIR 




TROTTOIR CYCLABLE 



ALLURE MODEREE 

. PRESCRUE A. 

TOUS VEHICULES 



PASSAGEaNIVEAU 



PARIS I LE HAVRE 

[=- >- I55« 

BDNNIEHES I VERNON 



PARIS : NANTES 

270" • — 



ATTENTfON ! 



proportions, even though it may be half a hun- 
dred kilometres distant. 

French roads are indeed wonderfully well 
marked ; and these little blue and white plaques^ 



The Roads of France 29 

put up by the roadside or fastened on the wall 
of some dwelling at the entrance or the exit 
of a village or town, must number hundreds of 
thousands. 

In these days of fast-rushing automobiles 
a demand has sprung up for a more striking 
and legible series of special sign-boards along 
certain roads, in order that he who runs may 
read. And so the Touring Club of France, on 
the great road which runs from Paris through 
Normandy, to Havre and Dieppe, for instance, 
has erected a series of large-lettered and abbre- 
viated sign-boards, which are all that could be 
desired. 

Besides these, there are other enigmatical 
symbols and signs erected by paternal societies 
of road users which will strike a stranger dumb 
with conjecture as to what they may mean. 

They are all essentially practical, however, 
as the following tableau will show. It is very 
important indeed for an automobilist or other 
road user to know that a railway-gate (like 
enough to be shut) awaits him around a sharp 
curve, or that a steep hill is hidden just be- 
hind a bank of trees. 

Still another class of signs met with by road 
users in France is most helpful. They, too, 
shoot out a warning which one may read as he 



30 



Rambles in Normandy 





virage avec qioDt^e. 











Croi^meol dangtreux. Dtsfj^Qtedoyfluseavecmsuvaiy vlfajici 




liails en ulltie 3ur routs. 






J^ 



Passage eo dessous. 



Uiiiffi!inKitii.tr.Hi«rii!Hn:i 




in Stance 




The Roads of France 31 

rushes by at high speed; printed in great 
staring letters, one, two, or three words which 
one dare not, if he values his life, ignore. 

Truly one who goes astray or contravenes 
any law of the road in France has only himself 
to blame. 

The chief national roads crossing Normandy 
are as follows : 

No. 192 rParis to Havre, by the right bank of the 
and -i Seine, passing Poissy, Melun, La Roche- 
14. [^ Guyon, Les Andelys, and Rouen. 



190. 



Paris to Rouen and Honfleur, by the left 
bank of the Seine. 

Paris to Cherbourg, via Evreux and Caen. 

Paris to Fecamp by Yvetot. 

Paris to Dieppe. 

bis. Paris to Tr^port. 

Paris to St. Malo, via Mayenne. 

bis. Paris to Granville by Verneuil. 

Paris to Coutances by Bayeux and St. L6. 



Paris to Vannes, via Plo6rmel. 



Paris to Quimper, via Rennes and Lorient. 



Paris to Brest, via Versailles, Alengon, 
Laval, Rennes, and St. Brieuc. 



32 Rambles in Normandy 

rParis to Nantes and Paimbceuf, via Ver- 
" ' ■} sailles, Chartres, Le Mans, Angers, and 
1^ Nantes. 

After the fall of the Roman Empire the 
magnificent roadways which threaded Gaul in 
every direction all but disappeared, and for a 
time the horse was employed only with the 
saddle, the more or less indolent nobles trav- 
elling mostly by vehicles drawn by oxen. 

By the middle ages the horse had come to be 
admired as a noble animal by virtue of his 
usefulness in war; but the routes of communi- 
cation were hardly more than simple tracks and 
by no means replaced the great rivers, which 
Pascal had called "ces chemins qui marchent." 
Indeed the " caches d'eau " had not entirely 
disappeared from the waterways of France until 
1830. 

The first carriages at all approaching the 
modern fashion were imported from Italy in the 
sixteenth century, doubtless by the Medicis. In 
1550 there were three, only, in Paris, but under 
Louis XIV. the roads became more carefully 
guarded and increased greatly in number. 

The great carrosses and caleches of the early 
days were ponderous affairs, a caleche known 
as a litiere, the precursor of the modern sleep- 



The Roads of France 



33 



ing-car, it would seem, having a weight of 2,500 
kilos. 

The following lines well describe it: 

" C'est un embarras strange, 
Qu'un grand carrosse dans la fange, 
C'est presque un village roulant. . . ." 

Under Louis XV. the carrosse became lighter 
and the chaise on two wheels came in. Then 




BE-Rv-DA^E. c/e PO$TL 



followed cabriolets, herlines, and the poste- 
chaise, and finally the malle-poste and the dili- 
gence. 

The most familiar of all, to those of a few 
generations ago, and to readers of travel litera- 
ture, is the diligence. 

These great carriages apparently had a most 
respectable lease of life, many having been in 



34 Rambles in Normandy- 

service for a great many years. To-day they 
have mostly disappeared, and in Normandy and 
Brittany practically exist not at all, so far as the 
tourist traveller is concerned, though once and 
again they may be useful on a cross-country 
road in order to connect with the railroad. 

It was only as late as 1760, however, that a 
public service of these diligences was estab- 
lished. At that time the coaches left Paris on 
stated days and travelled with unwonted regu- 
larity. The diligence to Rennes, in the heart of 
Bretagne, was timed for four days' travelling, 
and five days was employed for the journey to 
the old Breton capital of Nantes, on the Loire. 

These great carriages, commonly known as 
^ ' Royales, ' ' were hung on springs and drawn by 
eight horses. They did not travel as quickly as 
the malle-poste, but their rates were somewhat 
less, and they performed the common service 
before the advent of steam and the rail. 

There was nothing very luxurious or grand 
about them, but they were majestic and pictur- 
esque, and they sometimes carried a load, in- 
cluding passengers and luggage, of five thou- 
sand kilos. 

Closely allied with roads is the general topog- 
raphy of a country as shown by its maps. 

No country has such a marvellous series of 



The Roads of France 35 

maps of its soil as has France. The maps of 
the Minister of the Interior and the Etat Ma- 
jor are wonders of the art, and no traveller 
in Normandy or Brittany, or indeed any other 
part of France, should be without them. They 
are obtainable at any bookseller's in a large 
town, and the prices are remarkably low ; rang- 
ing from thirty centimes a sheet for the map of 
the Etat Major, printed only in black, to eighty 
centimes a sheet for the map of the Minister 
of the Interior, printed in colours. 

The following conventional signs will show 
the extreme practicability of the maps of the 
Etat Major, which are made on four different 
scales, the most useful being that of 1-80,000. 
The maps of the Minister of the Interior are 
made only on the scale of 1-100,000. 

Now and then on these great highroads of 
France, of which those of Normandy and Brit- 
tany are representative, one passes a headquar- 
ters or a barracks of the gendarmerie, those 
servitors of the law, the national police, an 
organization which grew up out of the men-at- 
arms or gens d'armes of Charles VII. 

These great barracks are veritable monas- 
teries, where the religion of faithful duty to the 
public and the nation reigns supreme. One 
never passes one of these impressive establish- 



36 



Rambles in Normandy 



ments without a full appreciation of the motto 
of the knightly Bayard, so frequently graven 



Route nationals 

Route depa^tementale 

Chentiin de fer 

Route encaissee 

t 

Route en chaussee.... 



"""•iiibfciJi'S.*' 



mmrmwimmwimmm 

Chemin de fer en cutting -^^^ 
Chemin de fer enbankin^t 
Ch.de fer, passage beneath 
Ch.de fer, passage above 
Ch.de fer, passage a niveau... 

Village - 

Chemin ...., 

C&nal, 

River* es' Bptdge 

Ruisseau Sf* Mill ^.„^^^,<,,A__, 




m 



i''iii^?f^^it 



'f^TtAf 




Pria 


mm: 




mmt 



Vhyerj^ 






Zcjidcs et SmiyeT'KS 



j^^^^0 






Jhjjics «.' Jiz^iif 



Explanation of the Maps of the Etat Major 

over their doors: "Sans peur et sans re- 
proche." 

The Assembly, in 1790, first instituted this 



The Roads of France 37 

almost perfectly organized police force, and 
Napoleon himself thought so highly of them 
that he wrote to Berthier in 1812 : ' ' Take not 
the police with you, but conserve them for the 
guarding of the country-side. Two or three 
hundred soldiers are as nothing, but two or three 
hundred police will assure the tranquillity and 
good order of the people at large. ' ' 

To-day, in times of peace, twenty-seven 
legions of police assure the security of the 
country-side; an effective force of about 
twenty-five thousand men and 725 officers, of 
whom a comparative few only are mounted. 

A colonel or a lieutenant-colonel is placed 
at the head of a legion, a company being allotted 
to each department. The company is com- 
manded by a major; then comes the district, 
placed under the orders of a captain or a lieu- 
tenant; the section, commanded by a junior 
officer; and finally a squad with a non-com- 
missioned officer or corporal at its head. 

Independent of crime and its details, the 
police are responsible as well for the mainte- 
nance of order in general. 

The pay for all this, it is to be regretfully 
noted, is not at all commensurate. An un- 
mounted policeman receives but 2 fr. 81 c. per 
^ay^ and if he is mounted but 3 fr. 23 c. per day. 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE FOEESTS OF FBANCE 

The forests of France are a source of never- 
ending interest and pride to the Frenchman, of 
whatever station in life. 

They are admirably preserved and cared for, 
and a paternal ministerial department guards 
them as jealously as a fond mother guards her 
children. 

No cutting of trees is allowed, except accord- 
ing to a prescribed plan ; and, when a new road 
is cut through, — and those superlative road- 
ways of France run straight as the crow flies 
through many of the finest forest tracts, — as 
likely as not an old one is replanted. 

The process of replanting goes on from day 
to day, and one sees no depleted forests of a 
former time, which are to-day a graveyard of 
bare stumps. 

If there is any regulation as to tree-planting 
in these great forests, it would seem, to a casual 
observer, to be that where one tree has grown 
before two are to be made grow in its place. 

38 



The Forests of France 39 

There is a popular regard among all travel- 
lers in France for Fontainebleau, Versailles, 
and perhaps Chantilly, but there are other tree- 
grown areas, quite as charming, little known to 
the general traveller: Eambouillet, for in- 
stance, and Villers-Cotterets, of which Dumas 
writes so graphically in '* The Wolf Leader." 

Normandy has more than its share of these 
splendid forests, some of them of great extent 
and charm. Indeed, the forest domain of 
Lyons, in Upper Normandy, one of the most 
extensive in all France, is literally covered with 
great beeches and oaks, surrounding small 
towns and hamlets, and an occasional ruined 
chateau or abbey, which makes a sojourn within 
its confines most enjoyable to all lovers of 
outdoor life. 

Surrounding the old Norman capital of Eouen 
are five great tracts which serve the inhabitants 
of that now great commercial city as a summer 
playground greatly appreciated. 

Game of various sorts still exists; deer in 
plenty, apparently, together with smaller kinds ; 
and now and then one will hear tales of bears, 
which are, however, almost unbelievable. 

In some regions — the forests of Lou\ders, 
for instance — the wild boar still exists. The 
chase for the wild boar, with the huntsmen fol- 



40 Rambles in Normandy 

lowing somewhat after the old custom (with 
a horn-blower, who is most theatrical in his 
get-up, and his followers, armed with lances 
and pikes in quite old-time fashion), is, as may 
be imagined, a most novel sight. 

The forests of Roumare and Mauny, occupy- 
ing the two peninsulas formed by the winding 
Seine just below Rouen, are remarkable, and 
are like nothing else except the other forests 
in France. 

There are fine roadways crossing and recross- 
ing in all directions, beautifully graded, with 
overhanging oaks and beeches, and as well kept 
as a city boulevard. 

Deer are still abundant, and the whole impres- 
sion which one receives is that of a genuine 
wildwood, and not an artificial preserve. 

In the picturesque forest of Roumare is 
hidden away the tiny village of Genetey, which 
has for an attraction, besides its own delightful 
situation, an ancient Maison de Templiers of 
the thirteenth century, a well of great depth, 
and a chapel to St. Grargon, of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, built in wood, with some fine sculptures 
and paintings, which was at one time a favourite 
place for pious pilgrims from Rouen. 

Not far away is Henouville, with a sixteenth- 
century church, lighted by five great windows 



The Forests of France 41 

of extraordinary proportions. The choir en- 
closes the remains of Legendre, the almoner 
of Louis XIII., who was cure of Henouville, and 
whose fame as a horticulturist was as great 
as that brought him by his official position. 

The near-by Chateau du Belley and its domain 
is now turned into a farm. 

La Fontaine, a hamlet situated directly on the 
Seine bank, is overshadowed by a series of high 
rocks of most fantastic form, known as the 
chair, or pulpit, of Gargantua. 

The forest of La Londe, of 2,154 hectares, on 
the opposite bank of the Seine from Eouen, is 
a remarkable tract of woodland, its oaks and 
beeches quite reminiscent of Fontainebleau. The 
trees as a whole are the most ancient and grand 
of those of any of the forests of Normandy. 
Two which have been given names are known 
respectively as Bel-Arsene, a magnificent beech 
'of eleven great branches, planted in 1773, and 
the Chene de la Cote Rotie, supposed to have 
the ripe old age of 450 years; and it looks its 
age. 

The forest of Londe is what the French 
geographer would describe as pittoresque et 
accidentee. It is all this would lead one to infer ; 
and, together with the forest of the Rouvray, 



42 Rambles in Normandy 

exceeds any other in Normandy, except the 
forest domain of Lyons. 

At the crossing of the Gresil road is the 
Chene-d-la-Bosse, having a circumference of 
three and a half metres ; and, near by, one sees 
the Hetre-a-V Image, a great beech of fantastic 
form. 

Amid a savage and entirely unspoiled gran- 
deur is a series of caves and grottoes, of them- 
selves of no great interest, but delightfully 
environed. 

Near Elbeuf, on the edge of the forest of 
Londe, are the Roches d'Orival, a series of rock- 
cut grottoes and caverns, — a little known spot 
to the majority of travellers in the Seine valley. 
Practically the formation begins at Elbeuf 
itself, onward toward Rouen, by the route which 
follows the highroad to the Norman capital via 
Grand Couronne. At Port du Gravier, on the 
bank of the Seine, is a sixteenth-century chapel 
cut in the rock, like its brethren or sisters at 
St. Adrien on the opposite bank, and at Haute 
Isle, just above Vernon. 

At Roche-Foulon are numerous rock-caverns 
still inhabited, and at the Roche du Pignon be- 
gins a series of curiously weathered and crum- 
bled rocks, most weird and bizarre. 

On a neighbouring hill are the ruins of Cha- 



The Forests of France 43 

teau Fouet, another of those many riverside 
fortresses attributed to Richard Coeur de Lion. 

The forest domain of Lyons is the finest 
beech-wood in all France, and its 10,614 
hectares (rather more than thirty thousand 
acres) was in the middle ages the favourite 
hunting-ground of the Dukes of Normandy. It 
is the most ample of all the forests of Nor- 
mandy. 

There are at least three trips which forest- 
lovers should take if they come to the charm- 
ing little woodland village of Lyons-le-Foret. 
It will take quite two days to cover them, and 
the general tourist may not have sufficient time 
to spare. Still, if he is so inclined, and wants 
to know what a really magnificent French 
forest is like to-day, before it has become spoiled 
and overrun (as is Fontainebleau), this is the 
place to enjoy it to the full. 

The old Chateau of Lyons, and the tiny ham- 
lets of Taisniers, Hogues, Heron, and the feudal 
ruins of Malvoisine, are a great source of pleas- 
ure to those who have become jaded with the 
rush of cities and towns. 

The chateau of the Marquis de Pommereu 
d 'Aligre, in the valley of the Heron, can be seen 
and visited, or rather the park may be (the park 
and chateau together are only thrown open to 



44 Rambles in Normandy 

the public on the fete patronale — the first 
Sunday of September). Croissy-sur-Andelle 
is another forest village, and the Val St. Pierre, 
a sort of dry river-bed carpeted with a thick 
undergrowth, is quite as fine as anything of the 
kind at Fontainebleau. 

At Petit Val is a magnificent beech five and 
a half metres in circumference, and supposed 
to be four hundred years old. 

At Le Tronquay there is a great school, over 
whose entrance doorway one reads on a plaque 
that it is — 

'' Commemorative de la delivrance des pa- 
roissiens du Tronquay admis a porter la fierte 
de St. Romain de Rouen, le 5 mai, jour de 
I'ascencion, de I'anne 1644." 

At the end of a double row of great firs, lie 
the ruins of the Chateau de Richbourg, built 
by Charles IX. 

La Fenille is a small market-town, quite 
within the forest, where one may get luncheon 
for the modest price of two francs, cider and 
coffee included, if he wanders so far from 
Lyons-le-Foret as this. 

Here there are the remains of some of the 
dungeons and the brick walls of a chateau built 
by Philippe-le-Bel. The tiny church dates from 




Lyons-le-Foret 



The Forests of France 45 

1293, and in the cemetery is a sculptured cross 
of the time of Henri IV. 

In the canton of Catelier are found the most 
remarkable trees of the whole forest. One 
great trunk alone, which was recently cut down, 
gave over thirty steres of wood; which means 
nothing as a mere staternent, but which looked, 
as it was piled by the roadside, to be a mass of 
timber great enough to fill the hold of a ship. 

At the source of the Levriere, a limpid forest 
stream, is the manor-house of the Fontaine du 
Houx, of the sixteenth century, belonging to a 
M. Hebert. If one is diplomatic he may get 
permission to enter to view the bedroom of 
Agnes Sorel, that royal favourite of other days 
whose reputation is a bit higher than those of 
some of her contemporaries. 

The doorkeeper will gladly accept a tip, so the 
visitor need have no hesitancy in making the 
demand, though he will have to choose his words. 

The old manor is a fine representative of a 
mediaeval house, surrounded by a great moat 
and garnished with a series of turrets. The 
chief features, outside of the apartment in which 
slept the gentle Agnes, are a fine staircase, a 
tower with a drawbridge over the moat, and, 
in the vestibule, a fine tapestry from the Cha- 
teau de la Haie. 



48 Rambles in Normandy 

Eosay, situated in a charming park, where the 
Lieure falls in a series of tiny cascades, about 
completes the list of the forest's attractions; 
but its hidden beauties and yet undiscovered 
charms are many. 

Perhaps some day the forest domain of 
Lyons will have an artist colony, or a number 
of them, such as are found in the encircling 
villages of the forest of Fontainebleau, but at 
present there are none, though it is belief of 
the writer that the aspect of nature unspoiled 
is far better here than at the more popular 
Fontainebleau. 




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CHAPTER IV, 



A TRAVEL CHAPTER 



To those upon whom has fallen the desire to 
travel amid historic sights and scenes, no part 
of France offers so much that is so accessible, 
so economically covered, or as interesting as 
the coasts and plains and river valleys of 
Normandy. , 

If possible they should lay out their journey 
beforehand, and if time presses make a tour 
that shall comprise some one distinct region 
only; as the Seine valley from Havre to La 
Eoche-Guyon ; the coast from Treport to Caen, 
or even Granville, or Mont St. Michel ; or follow- 
ing a line which runs more inland from Rouen 
by Lisieux, Falaise, and the valley of the Orne, 
to the famous Mont on the border of Brittany. 
They may indeed combine this last with a little 
tour which should take in the north Breton 
coast and even cross to the Channel Isles ; but 
if it is the Normandy coast or the Norman 
country-side of the Seine valley which they de- 

49 



50 Rambles in Normandy 

sire to know fully, and if time be limited, they 
should confine themselves to either one route 
or the other. 

Normandy divides itself topographically into 
the three itineraries mentioned : * ' The Coast, ' ' 
" The Seine Valley," and the '' Inland Route." 
They may be combined readily enough, or they 
may be taken separately; but to nibble a bit 
at one, a little at another, and still less at a 
third, and then rush on to Paris and its dis- 
tractions, or to some seaside place where brass 
bands and a casino form the principal attrac- 
tions, is not the way to have an intimate, per- 
sonal, and wholly delightful experience of '* la 
belle Normandie." 

A skeleton plan of each of these itineraries 
will be found, and further details of a practical 
nature also, elsewhere in this book. 

One's expenses may be what they will. By 
rail, twelve to fifteen francs a day will amply 
pay the bill, and by road, on bicycle or auto- 
mobile, they can be made to approximate as 
much or as little as one's tastes demand; nor 
will the quality of the accommodation and fare 
vary to an appreciable degree in either case. 
Even the automobilist with his sixty-horse 
Mercedes, while he may be suspected of being 
a millionaire American or an English lord, will 



A Travel Chapter 51 

not necessarily be adjudged so, and will be 
charged according to the tariff of the ' ' Touring 
Club, ' ' or other organization of which he may be 
a member. If he demands superior accommoda- 
tion, a sitting-room as well as a bedroom, or a 
fire and a hot bath, he will pay extra for that, 
as well as for the vin superieur which he may 
wish instead of the ordinaire of the table d'hote, 
or the cafe which he drinks after his meal. 

The old simile still holds good. The franc 
in France will usually purchase the value of 
a shilling in England. There is not much dif- 
ference with respect to one shilling; but an 
appalling sum in a land of cheap travel, when 
one has let a thousand of them pass through his 
hands. 

The leading hotels of the great towns and 
cities of Rouen, Havre, and Cherbourg rise 
almost to the height of the charges of those of 
the French capital itself; and those of Trou- 
ville-Deauville or Dieppe to perhaps even 
higher proportions, if one requires the best 
accommodation. The true peripatetic philoso- 
pher, however, will have naught to do with 
these, but will seek out for himself — unless 
some one posts him beforehand — such humble, 
though excellent inns as the " Trois Mar- 
chands," or the '' Mouton d 'Argent." 



62 Rambles in Normandy 

These are the real hotels of the country, 
where one lives bountifully for six to eight 
francs a day, and eats at the table d'hote with 
an informative conunercial traveller, or a 
keenly mindful small landholder of the country- 
side, who, if it is market-day, will as like as 
not be dressed in a black blouse. 

One criticism may justly be made of many 
of the hotels in Normandy, though mostly this 
refers only to such tourist establishments as 
one finds at Dieppe or Trouville. It is that the 
table wine is often charged for at two francs a 
bottle, while it ought to be served without extra 
charge, and is elsewhere in France. In many 
commercial hotels this is not the custom, but too 
frequently it is so, and, considering that the 
hoteliers of Normandy buy their wine in a 
much more favourable market, by reason of 
its cheap transport by sea, than their brethren 
of Lozere or the Cantal, where wine is never 
thought of as an extra, it seems somewhat of 
an imposition to one who knows his France well. 

The beef and mutton of Normandy is of most 
excellent quality, coming from fine animals 
who are only used if they are in the best condi- 
tion. 

This statement is made with a knowledge 
based upon some years' residence, to allay the 



A Travel Chapter 53 

all too prevalent opinion that French meat is 
of inferior quality, and is only palatable be- 
cause well disguised in the cooking. This is a 
fetish which ought long ago to have been burned. 
The fish one gets in Normandy is always fresh 
and remarkably varied, as well as the shell-fish 
{crevettes, meaning usually shrimp or prawns). 
The oysters are of course famous, for no one 
ever heard of a Courseulles bivalve which had 
typhoid tendencies. 

The railway has proved a great civilizer in 
France, and everywhere is found a system of 
communicating lines which are almost perfect. 

The great artery of the Western Railroad 
reaches out through all Normandy and Brittany, 
and its trunk lines to Dieppe, Havre, Cher- 
bourg, and Brest leave nothing to be desired 
in the way of appointments and expedition. 

The only objection, that the economical 
traveller can justify, is that second and third 
class tickets are often not accepted for distances 
under a hundred or a hundred and fifty kilo- 
metres; and, accordingly, he is forced to wait 
the accommodation train, which, truth to tell, 
is not even a little brother of the express-train. 
If it is any relation at all, it is a stepchild 
merely. 

At all events, the railway service throughout 



54 Rambles in Normandy 

France is well systematized and efficient, and 
Ruskin's diatribe against railways in general 
was most unholy. Lest it may have been for- 
gotten, as many of his ramblings have, and 
should be, it is repeated here. '' Railways are 
to me the loathsomest form of devilry now 
extant, animated and deliberate earthquakes " 
(we know what he thought of bicycles, and we 
wonder with fear what may have been his 
strictures on the automobile had he lived a 
few years longer), '' destructive of all wise, 
social habits and possible natural beauty, car- 
riages of damned souls on the ridges of their 
own graves." This, from a prophet and a seer, 
makes one thank Heaven the tribe was blind. 

Travel by rail is a simple and convenient 
process in Normandy, as indeed it is in all 
France. There is no missing of trains at lone- 
some junctions, and the time-tables are admi- 
rably and lucidly planned. 

In the larger towns all the stations have a 
bureau of information which will smooth the 
way for the traveller if he will not take it upon 
himself to consult that almost perfect series 
of railway time-tables found in every cafe and 
hotel throughout France. He registers his bag- 
gage and gets a receipt for it, like the ' ' checks ' ' 
of the American railways, by paying two sous ; 



A Travel Chapter 55 

or he may send it by express (not by freight, for 
there is too little difference in price), or as un- 
accompanied baggage, which will ensure its 
being forwarded by the first passenger-train, 
and at a most reasonable charge. 

The economical way of travelling in France, 
and Normandy in particular, is third class; 
and the carriages, while bare and hard-seated, 
are thoroughly warmed in winter, and are as 
clean as those of their kind anywhere; per- 
haps more so than in England and America, 
where the stuffy cushions harbour much dirt 
and other objectionable things. 

Second class very nearly approaches the 
first class in point of price, and is very nearly 
as luxurious; while first class itself carries 
with it comparative exclusiveness at propor- 
tionately high charges. 

More important, to the earnest and conscien- 
tious traveller, is the fact that often, for short 
distances between near-by places, a convenient 
train will be found not to carry third-class pas- 
sengers ; and to other places, a little less widely 
separated, not even second class; although 
third and second class passengers are carried 
by the same train for longer distances. This 
is about the only inconvenience one suffers 
from French railways, and makes necessary a 



56 Rambles in Normandy 

careful survey of the tinie-table, where the idio- 
syncrasies of individual trains are clearly 
marked. 

Excursion trains of whatever class are de- 
cidedly to be avoided. They depart and return 
from Paris, Trouville, Dieppe, or some other 
popular terminus at most inconveniently un- 
comfortable hours, and are invariably over- 
crowded and not especially cheap. 

The attractions of Normandy for the traveller 
are so many and varied that it would be 
practically impossible to embrace them all in 
any one itinerary without extending its limit 
of time beyond that at the disposal of most 
travellers. 

From Treport, on the borders of Picardy, 
to Arromanches, near Bayeux, is an almost 
uninterrupted line of little and big seashore 
towns whose chief industry consists of catering 
to summer visitors. 

From Arromanches to Mont St. Michel, the 
seaside resorts are not so crowded, and are 
therefore the more enjoyable, unless one de- 
mands the distractions of great hotels, golf- 
links, and tea-rooms. 

In the Seine valley, beginning with La Eoche- 
Guyon, on the borders of the ancient royal 
domain, down to the mouth of the mighty river 



A Travel Chapter 57 

at Havre, is one continuous panorama of de- 
lightful large and small towns, not nearly so 
well known as one might suppose. Vernon with 
its tree-bordered quays ; Giverny, and its artists 
colony ; Les Andelys with their ' ' saucy castle ' ' 
built by Richard Cceur de Lion; Pont de 
I'Arche with the florid Gothic church dedicated 
to Our Lady of the Arts ; the riverside resorts 
above Rouen ; Elbeuf with its busy factories, but 
picturesque and historic withal ; Rouen, the an- 
cient Norman capital; La Bouille-Molineux ; 
the great abbeys of Jumieges, St. Wandrille and 
St. Georges de Boscherville ; Caudebec-en- 
Caux; Lillebonne; Harfleur; Honfleur, and 
Havre form a compelling array of sights and 
scenes which are quite irresistible. 

On the northeastern coast are Etretat, famed 
of artists of generations ago; Fecamp with 
the associations of its ancient abbeys Dieppe ; 
the Petites Dalles; St. Valery-en-Caux ; Eu 
with its chateau ; and Treport and its attendant 
little seashore villages. 

Inland, and southward, through the Pays-de- 
Caux, are Lyons-le-Foret, which, as its name 
bespeaks, is a little forest-surrounded town, 
quite unworldly, and eight kilometres from a 
railway; Gournay; Forges-les-Eaux, a de- 
cayed seaport town ; Gisors ; and the charming 



58 Rambles in Normandy 

little villages of the valleys of the Andelle and 
the Ept. 

Follow up the Eure from its juncture with 
the Seine at the Pont de 1 ' Arche, and one enters 
quite another region, quite different from that 
on the other side of the Seine. 

The chief towns are Louviers, a busy cloth- 
manufacturing centre with an art treasure of 
the first rank in its beautifully flamboyant 
church ; and Evreux with its bizarre cathedral, 
headquarters of the Department of the Eure; 
while northward and westward, by Conches and 
Beaumont-le-Roger to Caen and Bayeux, lies 
a wonderful country of picturesque and historic 
towns, such as Lisieux ; Bernay, famous for its 
horse-fair; Falaise, the birthplace of William 
the Conqueror; and Dives, where he set sail 
for England's shores, — names which will 
awaken memories of the past in a most vivid 
fashion. 

Westward of the valley of the Orne lies the 
Cotentin, with the cathedral towns of Avran- 
ches, Coutances, and St. L6, and Mont St. 
Michel, which of itself is a sort of boundary 
stone between Normandy and Brittany. 

The monumental curiosities of the province 
and the natural attractions are all noted in 
the plans which are here given ; and from them, 



A Travel Chapter 59 

' - — 

and this descriptive outline, one should be able 

to map out for himself a tour most suitable 

to correspond to his inclinations. 

There is this much to say of Normandy, in ad- 
dition : it is the most abundantly supplied of all 
the ancient French provinces with artistic and 
natural sights and curiosities, and above all 
is compact and accessible. 

There is one real regret that will strike one 
with regard to the journeyings in the valley 
of the Seine. There is no way of making the 
trip by water above Rouen. From Havre to 
Rouen, one may journey in a day on a little 
steamer, a most enjoyable trip; and at Rouen 
one finds the little ' ' fly-boats, ' ' — reminiscent 
of the bateaux mouches of Paris, — which will 
take one for a half a dozen miles in either 
direction for astonishingly low fares. 
. Pont de I'Arche, however, and Muids, and 
that most picturesquely situated of all northern 
French towns, Les Andelys, onward to Tosny, 
and still up-river, by Port Mort to Vernon, 
there is no communication by water for the 
passenger, though the great barges and canal- 
boats pass and repass a given point scores 
of times in a day, carrying coal, wine, cotton, 
and other merchandise, through the very finest 
scenery of the Seine. 



60 Rambles in Normandy 

A few words on the French language are in- 
evitable with every author of a book of 
French travel, and so they are given here. 
There is a current idea that English is the lan- 
guage for making one's way about. Try it in 
Normandy or Brittany, in the average automo- 
bile garage, the post-office, or the railway sta- 
tion, or on the custodian of some great church or 
chateau, and you will prove its fallacy. 

At Eouen, Havre, or Dieppe, and at the great 
tourist hotels it is different; but in the open 
country seldom, if ever, will you come across 
one who can speak or understand a single word 
of English; save an occasional chauffeur who 
may have seen service on some titled person's 
motor-car in England, and knows ^' all right," 
'' pretty soon," and '' go ahead " to perfec- 
tion. 

The writer notes two exceptions. Doubtless 
there may be others. 

At the quaint little Seine-side town of 
Vetheuil, near La Eoche-Guyon, which fits 
snugly in the southeast corner of Normandy, 
one enters the tobacco-shop to buy a picture 
post-card, perhaps, of its quaint little church, 
so loved by artists, and there he will find an 
unassuming little man who retails tobacco to 



A Travel Chapter 61 

the natives and souvenir postal cards to stran- 
gers while chatting glibly in either tongue. 

At the Hotel Bellevue in Les Andelys is a 
waitress who speaks excellent English; though 
you may be a guest of the house for months 
and talk in English daily with your artist- 
neighbour across the table, and not know that 
she understands a word of what you say, — 
which surely indicates great strength of mind 
on the part of this estimable woman, though the 
circumstance has proved embarrassing. 

In this connection it is curious to note the 
influx of English words into the Gallic tongue. 
Most of these words have been taken up by the 
world of sport and fashion, and have not yet 
reached the common people. 

One can, if he is ingenious, carry on quite a 
conversation with a young man about town, 
whom one may meet at table d'hote or at a cafe, 
either at the capital or in the larger towns, with- 
out knowing a word of French, and without 
his realizing that he knows English. 

'' Gentleman," " tennis," and ^' golf " ; 
" yacht," '' yachting," and " mail-coach " ; 
" garden-party," " handicap," and " jochey," 
— all these are equally well-known and under- 
stood of the modern Frenchman. '* Very 



62 Rambles in Normandy 

smart " is heard once and again of a '' swell " 
turnout drawn by a pair of " high-steppers/' 

For clothing the Frenchman of fashion af- 
fects " waterproofs,^^ " snow-boots,^^ " leg- 
gings," and " knickerbockers," and he travels 
in a '^ sleeping-car " when he can afford their 
outrageously high charges. When it comes to 
his menu — more's the pity — he too often af- 
fects the '' mutton-chop " and the " beefsteak " 
in the '^ grill-room " of a '' music-hall." 

The fact is only mentioned here as showing 
a widespread affectation, which, in a former 
day, was much more confined and restricted. 

In the wine country, in Touraine and on the 
coast, you will hear the " black rot " talked of, 
and in Normandy, at Havre, you will see a 
crowd of " dockers " discussing vehemently — 
as only Normans can — the latest " lockout.''^ 

All this, say the discerning French, is a mad- 
ness that can be cured. " Allons, parlons 
frangais! " that is the remedy; and matters 
have even gone so far as to form an association 
which should propagate the French tongue to 
the entire exclusion of the foreign, in the same 
way as there is a patriotic alliance to prevent 
the "invasion etrangere." 

The Norman patois is, perhaps, no more 
strange than the patois of other parts of 



A Travel Chapter 63 



France. At any rate it is not so difficult to 
understand as the Breton tongue, which is only- 
possible to a Welshman — and his numbers are 
few. 

The Parisians who frequent Trouville revile 
the patois of Normandy ; but then the Parisian 
does not admit that any one speaks the real 
French but he and his fellows. In Touraine 
they claim the same for their own capital. 

Henry Moisy claims the existence, in the Nor- 
man's common speech of to-day, of more than 
five thousand words which are foreign to the 
French language. 

The Normandy patois, however, is exceedingly 
amusing and apropos. The author has been 
told when hurrying down a country road to the 
railway that there is plenty of time; the loco- 
motive '^ hasn't laughed yet," meaning it had 
not whistled. Again at table d'hote, when one 
has arrived late, and there remains only one 
small fish for two persons, you may be told that 
you will have to put up with '* oeufs a la coque " 
instead, as there is only '^ une souris a treize 
chats/' It is not an elegant expression, but 
it is characteristic. 

Victor Hugo had the following to say con- 
cerning Norman French: 

' ' Oh, you brave Normans ! know you that 



64 Rambles in Normandy 

your patois is venerable and sacred. It is a 
flower which sprang from the same root as 
the French. 

^' Your patois has left its impress upon the 
speech of England, Sicily, and Judea, at Lon- 
don, Naples, and at the tomb of Christ. To 
lose your speech is to lose your nationality, 
therefore, in preserving your idiom you are 
preserving your patriotism." 

^' Yes, your patois is venerable and your 
first poet was the first of poetes frangais: 

« Je di e dirai ke je suis 
Wace de Jersuis." 

The following compilation of Norman idioms 
shows many curious and characteristic ex- 
pressions. The definitions are given in French, 
simply because of the fact that many of them 
would quite lose their point in translation. 

Amuseux. — Faineant, qui muse : " C'est pas un mauvais 
bomme, seulement il est un brin amuseux." 

A nnuyt. — Aujourd'hui. " J'aime mieux annuyt qu'a de- 
main." 

Andouille a treize quiens (chiens). — Petit heritage pour beau- 
coup d'h^ritiers ; on dit aussi " une souris a treize cats 
(chats)." 

Apanage. — Possession embarrassante ; " Ma chere, c'est tout 
un apanage de maison a tenir." 

Chibras — Paquet, monceau, fouillis, amas de choses en d^s- 
ordre. Se trouve dans Rabelais. 



A Travel Chapter 65 

Quant et. — En compagnie de, " j'm'en vais a quant et t6." 

A queutee — Rang^e a la queue leu leu, " une a queut^e de 
monde." 

Assemblee. — Fete villageoise. 

Assiette faitee. — Assiette dont le contenu s'^leve au-dessus, en 
faite, litt^ralement en forme de faite : " C'est un faim- 
vallier, il ne mange que par assiettes fait^es." 

Du feur. — Fourrage, vieux mot d'origine scandinave, d'oii 
vient le fourrier. 

D's'horains Mot honfleurais ; dans I'ancien langage des 

marins de Honfleur, on appelait des horains les plus gros 
cables des navires. Far image, le mot est entr6 et rest6 
dans le langage usuel, pour amarre. D'oii la tres jolie 
locution honfleuraise, dont quelques vieilles gens font en- 
core usage, sans trop en savoir le vrai sens original. " II a 
queuq'horain." II est amoureux, il a quelques fortes 
attaches. 

Et simplement : " Chacun a ses horains." — Chacun a ses 
habitudes (en mauvaise part). 

Crassiner. — Pleuvoir d'une petite pluie fine qui a nom crassin 
ou crachin et ressemble a du crachat qui encrasse les objets. 

I's ont te el'ves commes trois petits quiens dans un' manne aupres 
du feu. 

/' li cause. — D'un amoureux, il lui fait la cour. 

Ps park. — Se dit d'un paysan qui cherche a parler le langage 
de la ville. 

Le temps est au conseil. — Jolie expression maritime pour dire 
que le temps est incertain. — Le " conseil " d^lib^re s'il fera 
beau ou vilain. 

Se dementer. — Se donner du trouble d'esprit, pour quelque 
chose. 

A Villerville, les p§cheurs sont tons des maudits monstres et 
des maudits guenons, termes d'amiti^. 
— Les femmes sont des " por'ti coeurs." 

Pouchiner Caresser un enfant comme une poule son poussin. 

Adirer. — Perdre, 6garer. 



66 Rambles in Normandy 

Esperer quelqu'un. — Atteiidre. 

Capogner. — Chiffonner avec force, d^former. 

Se chairer S'asseoir en prenant toute la place, se carrer. 

Milan. — Le milieu, le centre (tout au mitan). 

Le coupet Le sommet (au fin coupet de I'arbre). 

Binder Rebondir. 

Patinguet. — Saut. 

Un repaire. — Se dit d'un homme vicieux. " Ne me parlez 

pas de celui-la, c'est un repaire." 
A iiser, ratiser. — Corriger par des coups : " j't' vas ratiser." 
A touratter. — Enrouler autour ; " I'serpent I'atourottit et I'^touf- 

fit." 
Attendiment. — En attendant que; "soigne le pot au feu, at- 

tendiment que jVas queri du bois." 
A c't'heure. — Maintenant: A cette heure, vieux frangais 

employ^ dans Montaigne. 
D'aveuc. — Avec. 

Barbelotte — Bgte a bon Dieu, coccinelle. 
Bavoler — Voler pres de terre ; " i va ch6 d'qui (11 va tomber 

quelque chose), les hirondelles bavolent." 
Qu'rt — Qu^rir, chercher. 
D'la partie. — En partant de la, depuis ; " d'la partie de Pont- 

I'Eveque, j'sommes venus a Honfleur." 
A Venrait. — A cet endroit. 

Filer. — Fouler aux pieds ; " ne m'pile pas su le pied." 
S'commercer sur, s'marchander sur • Faire des affaires ; *' i 

s'marchande su' les grains." 
A loser. — Louanger, dire du bien de. 
Allouvi. — Avoir une fairn de loup: "j'sommes allouvis." 

Detourber D6ranger, d6tourner. 

Crepir. — " I's'cr6pit d'su'ses argots." Se dit d'un coq. 

A ses accords. — A ses ordres. " Si tu cr6 que j'sis a ses ac 

cords." 
A ses appoints. — MSme sens. 
Demoiselle. — Petite mesure de liquids. Ce qu'une demoiselle 

pent boire d'eau-de-vie ou de cidre. 



A Travel Chapter 67 

Dans par oil. — Laisser tout dans par oil ; commencer un ou- 

vrage sans I'achever. 
Gouhlain Revenant, fantSme, diable des matelots; ils ap- 

paraissent en mer sous la forme des camarades noy6s. En 

passant " sous Gr^ce " ou quand on fait le signe de la croix, 

le goublain se jette a I'eau ; Kobold des conteurs du Nord. 
Decapler — S'en aller, mourir. " Le pauvre bougre est d6- 

capl6." Terme maritime. 
Itou. — Aussi. 

Une hordee. — Compagnie nombreuse. 
Eclipper. — Eclabousser. 
C'est un char de guerre. — Se dit d'une personne brutale. 

Mgme signiiication que Cerbere, porte de pnson. 

La terre est poignardee La terre est corrompue. 

Le monde tire a sa fin. — Pour exprimer r^tonnement d'un fait 

rare, extraordinaire, une d^couverte. 
Oil Dieu bailie du train, il donne du pain. — Dieu protege les 

nombreuses families. 
Cramail. — Le cou, « prendre au cramail." 
La belle heure. — "Je ne vois pas la belle heure de faire 

cela ! " Ce ne sera pas commode. 
J'va pas voule qa. — Oh I mais non, par exemple. 
Piece — " J'nai piece : " je n'en ai pas. 
Heurer. — " II est heur6 pour ses repas." II a ses heures r6- 

gulieres. 
Heurible. — Pr^coce. Un pommier " heurible." 
Ingamo. — " Avoir de I'ingamo," avoir de I'esprit. 
Cceuru. — Qui a du coeur, dru, solide. 

Faire sa bonne sauce. — Presenter les choses a son avantage. 
Pas bileux. — Qui ne se fait pas de bile. 
D'un bibet il fait un elephant. — II exagere tout. 
En cas qu'fa se. — En cas que cela soit, dubitatif ironique, 

pour : cela n'est pas vrai. 
Cousue de chagrin. — Une fille cousue de chagrin, elle ferait 

pleurait les cailloux du chemin. 
Suivez le cheu li. — On dit que c'est un brave homme ; avant 



68 Rambles in No rmandy 

de le croire, suivez-le chez lui. Dans rintimit6, Ton se 

montre ce qu'on est. 
Plus la haie est basee, plus le monde y passe. — Plus vous etes 

malheureux, moins on a d'^gards pour vous. 
Les filles, les pretres, les pigeons, 
No salt ben d'oii qu'i viennent. 
No n'sait point ou qu'i vont. 
N'y a CO qu'se a ses noces. — II n'est rien de tel que soi-mgme 

pour veiller a ses int6rets. 
L'ergent pa s'compte deux fe'. — L'argent se compte deux fois. 
Veux-tu etre hureu un jour ? Saoule t6 ! 
Veux-tu gtre hureu trois jours ? Marie t6 ! 
Veux-tu etre hureu huit jours ? Tue tan cochan ! 
Veux-tu etre hureu toute ta vie ? Fais t6 cur6 ! 

With the English tourist, at least, the Nor- 
man patois will not cause dissension, if indeed 
he notices it at all — or knows what it's all 
about, if he does notice it. 

Every intelligent person, of course, is fond 
of speculating as to the etymology of foreign 
words and phrases ; and in France he will find 
many expressions which will make him think 
he knows nothing at all of the language, pro- 
vided he has learned it out of school-books. 

Many a university prize-winner has before 
now found himself stranded and hungry at a 
railway buffet because he could not make the 
waiter understand that he wanted his tea served 
with milk and his cut of roast beef underdone. 

French colloquialism and idiom are the stum- 



A Travel Chapter 69 

bling-blocks of the foreigner in France, even if 
he is college bred. The French are not so 
prolific in proverbs as the Spanish, and the 
slang of the boulevards is not the speech of 
the provincial Frenchman. There are in the 
French language quaint and pat sayings, how- 
ever, which now and then crop up all over 
France, and as an unexpected reply to some 
simple and grammatically well-formed inquiry 
are most disconcerting to the foreigner. 

A Frenchman will make you an off-hand 
reply to some observation by stating '' C'est 
vieux comme le Pont Neuf/' meaning '^ it's 
as old as the hills," and '' bon chat, hon rat," 
when he means " tit for tat," or *' sauce for 
the goose is sauce for the gander. ' ' 

If you have had a struggle with your auto- 
mobile tire, or have just escaped from slipping 
,off the gangplank leading from a boat to the 
shore, you might well say in English, " That 
was warm work." The Frenchman's comment 
is not far different; he says, " L' affaire a ete 
chaude." " Business is business " is much 
the same in French, " Les affaires sont les 
af aires," and '' trade is bad " becomes '^ Les 
affaires ne marchent pas." " He is a dead 
man," in French, becomes, '' Son a f aire (or 
son compte) est fait." The Frenchman, when 



70 Rambles in Normandy 

he pawns his watch, does not " put it up " 
with his uncle, but tells you, " J'ai porte ma 
montre chez ma tante." '' Every day is not 
Sunday " in its French equivalent reads, 
'' Ce n'est pas tous les jours fete." 

'^ He hasn't an idea in his head " becomes 
'^ II a jete tout son feu," and, paradoxically, 
when one gets a receipt from his landlord that 
individual writes, '^ pour acquit." 

A fortune, in a small way, awaits the per- 
son who will evolve some simple method of 
teaching English-speaking people how to know 
a French idiom when they meet with it. Truly, 
idiomatic French is a veritable pitfall of 
phrase. 



PART n 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PROVINCE AND ITS PEOPLE 

GTaul in the time of Caesar included Nor- 
mandy in its general scheme, as is shown by 
the ancient names, — that of the Lexovii, at 
Lisieux; the Bajocasses, at Bayeux; the 
Unelli of the Cotentin; the Ambivariti, at 
Avranches ; the Veliscasses of Vexin and Eoto- 
magus (Rouen), and the Caletes of the Pays 
de Caux. 

It was many centuries before all these peoples 
were welded together under one stable govern- 
ment, the Franks only predominating toward 
the end of the fifth century, after they had van- 
quished the Romans at Soissons, in Belgica, 
in 486. 

Normandy formed one of the four ancient 
provinces of transalpine Gaul known to their 
founder, Augustus, as Lyonnaise. Since it 
bordered upon the Manche, or what is other- 
wise known as the English Channel, the '' an- 

73 



74 Rambles in Normandy 

cient land of Lyonnese " is known to geolo- 
gists as forming a fragment of what was one 
day the mainland of Europe. 

In our later day the only attempt at the pres- 
ervation of this ancient name was in the dis- 
tribution of the ecclesiastical provinces of 
France previous to the Revolution, when the 
archbishop who had his throne at Rouen ex- 
ercised his rights through all the northern 
province of the Lyonnaise of Augustus. 

Later ancient Gaul became again divided, so 
far as the present limits of France are con- 
cerned, into four great divisions, of which 
Neustria, a vast triangle between the mouth 
of the Escaut, the source of the Seine, and 
Bretagne, which included the whole of Nor- 
mandy, was one of the most important. 

The Neustri Kingdom {ne-ost-reich, the king- 
dom which is not of the east) was fur- 
ther distinguished from the Ostrasien by man- 
ners and customs which were climatically 
influenced to differ from those of the ost reich, 
which were manifestly Germanic. 

In 1789 the Assembly reconstructed the map 
of France — the great rhomboid of France, as 
the French school geographies put it — into 
eighty-three departments, when Normandy was 
dismembered to form the Departments of Cal- 



The Province and Its People 75 

vados, Orne, Manche, Eure, and the Lower 
Seine. 



d:^partement8. 


PEiFECTUBES. 


sous - PREFECTURES. 


Lower Seine. 


Rouen. 


Havi-e, Yvetot, 
Dieppe, Neufchatel. 


Eure. 


Evreux. 


Bernay, Pt. Audemer, 
Louviers, Les Andelys. 


Manche. 


St. L6. 


Cherbourg, Valognes, 
Coutances, Avranches, 
Mortain, 


Orne. 


Alengon. 


Domfront, Argentan, 
Mortagne. 


Calvados. 


Caen. 


Vire, Bayeux, Falaise, 
Pont r;6veque, 
Lisieux. 



Normandy, as a powerful independent state 
in the middle ages, was greatly helped by its 
natural advantages. 

Its great spread of territory, along the Chan- 
nel coast between the Bresle and the Couesnon, 
for a matter of six hundred kilometres, has 
its shore lined with numerous creeks and val- 
leys and marked by jutting fangs of rock, with 
here and there a sand-spread shore lying be- 
neath a chalky cliff. 

Upper Normandy was the name given to that 
portion of the province lying to the eastward, 
and Lower Normandy to that lying to the west- 



76 Rambles in Normandy 

ward; the dividing line being the Pays d'Auge, 
lying between the valleys of the Touques and 
the Dives. 

Upper Normandy is a series of plateaus, 
not unlike Picardy and Artois. The streams 
run through deep valleys which divide these 
plateaus into distinct blocks, each with a strik- 
ing individuality. 

To the west is the Pays de Caux, which has 
for a subdivision a restricted region between the 
Bresle and Dieppe known as the Petit-Caux. 

Dieppe, Havre, and Rouen are the three 
angles of this elevated plain, which, on its west- 
ern boundary, is bordered by the Seine, where 
a great promontory known as the Nez de Tan- 
carville juts out into the river. 

To a great extent these plateaus are de- 
prived of water, but the valleys have a super- 
abundance. 

Along the coast of Upper Normandy are 
the famous seaside resorts of Treport-Mers, 
Dieppe, Veules, St. Valery-en-Caux, Petites 
Dalles, Fecamp, Yport, and Etretat. 

In the interior is the curious Pays de Bray, 
between the valleys of the Ept and the Andelle. 
This is a part of the ancient Vexin, of which 
the Isle of France also held a portion as well 
as Normandy; the old divisions being known 



The Province and Its People 77 

as '* Vexin Frangais," and '* Vexin Nor- 
mand. ' ' 

Westward of the Seine is the Plain of St. 
Andre, and between the Eure, the Avre, and 
the Iton is the Campagne du Neubourg. 

The Roumois lies between the Eure, the Iton, 
and the Risle, and the Pays d'Ouche between 
the Iton and the Charentonne, while the Lieu- 
vin borders on the Risle and the Touques. 

The Pays d'Auge, between the Touques and 
the Dives, is also a fragment cut from the 
same plateau which lies to the eastward. 

Throughout Upper Normandy are innumer- 
able forests, preserved to-day from reserva- 
tions of a former time and guarded carefully 
by a solicitous government. 

These are principally the forests of Eu, 
Arques, Bray, Lyons (an enormous tract), 
Les Andelys, Vernon, Bizy, Louviers, Pont de 
I'Arche, Londe, Roumare, and Rouvray (op- 
posite Rouen), Jumieges, Trait-St. Wandrille, 
Beaumont, Ivry, Evreux, and Touques. 

In Lower Normandy the topography and 
configuration change completely. It contains 
innumerable little streams and rivers, and it 
is more uniformly elevated than in the east; 
the plateaus averaging between one and two 
hundred metres above sea-level. 



78 Rambles in Normandy 

The Orne and the Vire are the chief water- 
ways among this multitude of rivulets, very 
few of which, except the two former, are navi- 
gable to any extent. 

The chief districts here are : The Campagne 
de Caen, the Pays du Bessin, the Bocage, the 
Cotentin, and the Collines de La Perche 
— whence come the Percherons. 

The whole region is most delightful, abound- 
ing in charming river scenery, valleys, and 
wooded tracts of oak, beech, and pine. 

The coast of these parts is more sombre and 
austere than that to the eastward, though none 
the less delightful, the Nez de Jobourg and 
Cape de la Hague being as unpeopled and as 
little known to tourists as if they were in Lab- 
rador. 

For the most part the climate of Normandy 
is the same as that which prevails throughout 
the lower Seine valley; in general moderate 
and without extremes of heat or cold, and yet 
quite different from the climate of America, 
which Eeclus, the geographer, has apportioned 
to Brittany. 

Frequently, in the valley of the Orne, the 
early mornings are thick with mist which makes 
those charming views which artists love; 
while, in the valley of the Auge, and in Bessin, 



The Province and Its People 79 

there is undoubtedly too much rain, as there 
is in some parts of the Seine valley, while at 
Les Andelys, thirty miles away, there is a 
notable absence of it. 

Generally speaking, it rains more frequently 
on the coast than in the interior of Normandy. 
The Cotentin peninsula possesses the mildest 
climate of all, favouring that of Brittany to a 
great extent, owing to the proximity of the 
Gulf Stream. So mild is it here that myrtle, 
camellias, and fuchsias grow in the open air, 
which they do not in other parts of the prov- 
ince, unless well sheltered and cared for. 

Properly speaking, France has no northern 
frontier, though the coast which borders the 
Strait of Calais and the Channel is quite as 
vulnerable and open to attack as it has been 
in times past, and as is the German frontier 
of Alsace and Lorraine. 

The mementos of war along the shores of 
the English Channel are numerous indeed. 
From St. Malo to Dieppe, the corsairs fre- 
quently attacked. At Dives the JSieet of Will- 
iam the Conqueror set sail for the shores of 
England, and Harfleur was the place of land- 
ing of Edward III. of England in 1346. The 
English occupied Cherbourg for a long period, 
and in 1415 Henry V. disembarked at Har- 



80 Rambles in Normandy 

fleur, near the mouth of the Seine, at the begin- 
ning of that campaign which terminated at 
Agincourt. 

At the month of the Seine, Francois I. 
founded Fran§oisville, later Havre de Grace, 
which for a time was in the hands of the Eng- 
lish, and was three times bombarded during 
the wars of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. St. 
Malo, Cherbourg, and Dieppe also suffered in 
the same way. 

The dividing of the old historical provinces 
of France into administrative departments, 
after the Eevolution, was a most ingenious 
work. The idea was then, and always has been, 
to foster local pride and love of country, prov- 
ince, and district, and for this reason the 
nomenclature of the new departments, carved 
out of the old provinces, was most convenient 
and suitable. 

It could not have been better done, for the 
names of local, physical, and topographical 
features, such as rivers, mountains, and pla- 
teaus were used to distinguish them. 

Thus, whilst he is a Breton, and a French- 
man, the native of the Morbihan may have quite 
different emotions and sentiments from one 
of Finistere; and the peasant of the Pays de 



The Province and Its People 81 

Caux, known as a Cauchois, is quite a different 
person from the peasant of the Cotentin. 

These political divisions are now as famil- 
iarly impressed upon the French mind as were 
the old names of the provinces, and a son of the 
Aube or the Eure will fraternize to-day with 
none of those jealousies which formerly rankled 
between the Bourguignon and the Norman. 

After the division into the old provinces, of 
which the residents of Normandy and Brit- 
tany were as proud as any, came the knead- 
ing together after the Revolution of those 
widely divergent influences which go to make 
up modern France. 

The affairs of the departments — of which 
the ancient Normandy, as we have seen, made 
five — are administered by a Prefet appointed 
by the President on the suggestion of the 
Minister of the Interior. 

Each department is made up of many dis- 
tricts, of which the smallest number is four, 
if one excepts the poor, rent fragment known 
as the Territory of Belfort — all that is left 
of the former Department of the Upper Rhine. 

The district, of which there are 362 in France, 
has its affairs administered by a Sous-Prefet. 
He is nominated by the President of the Re- 



82 Rambles in Normandy 

public and is subordinate to the Prefet of the 
department. 

The district is made up of many cantons, the 
smallest number being eight. The canton com- 
prehends, usually, many communes, the small- 
est number being twelve. It forms a group, 
which, popularly speaking, enjoys a certain 
form of self-government, under a commis- 
sioner, who is, of course, directly responsible 
to the Sous-Prefet of his district. There are, 
throughout France, 2,865 cantons. 

The commune represents the smallest ter- 
ritorial division recognized in the economic 
conduct of the French governmental affairs. 
There are in the neighbourhood of 36,000 in 
France, and they usually comprise a city or 
large town, with its surrounding villages, ham- 
lets, isolated dwellings, and farms. 

The affairs of the commune are adminis- 
tered by the mayor and common council. In 
the capitals of the department, district, or can- 
ton, the mayor is nominated by the President 
of the Republic, and in the other communes 
by the Prefet. 

The city of Paris, however, has a special 
administration of its own. 

The ancient province of Normandy, after it 
had been confiscated and welded to the royal 



The Province and Its People 83 

domain of Philippe- Auguste (1204), enjoyed 
many unique rights; of which the chief was 
the privilege of its inhabitants to be judged on 
appeal to their own supreme court, which sat 
at Rouen. 

The peasants of the country-side had always 
rebelled against royal despotism, for which 
reason their individuality was most pronounced. 

Upper Normandy had Rouen for its capital, 
and Lower Normandy, Caen. This last city 
possessed a university and long remained the 
intellectual centre of the province. 

To-day its five departments, the Lower 
Seine, Eure, Calvados, Orne, and Manche, have 
their ecclesiastical metropolis and archbishop 
at Rouen, with suffragans and bishops at Ev- 
reux, Bayeux, Sees, and Coutances. 

From ' ' The French Drawn by Themselves, ' ' 
of Bedolliere, one learns that ' ' the Normans are 
the Anglais of France, but in industry only." 

Jal says briefly: " The peasants of Nor- 
mandy have a great love for the bonnet of 
cotton." 

Bedolliere continues with the statement that 
** the costume of the Norman women is varied 
to the infinite, but all, down to the fille d'au- 
herge, have the instructive science of coquef- 
terie.^^ 



84 Rambles in Normandy 

" The Norman will never answer you di- 
rectly," says another; '' yes and no are dif- 
ficult replies for him to make to one's question." 

" The Norman is the Gascon of the north 
and the Gascon is the Norman of the Midi," 
one reads, also. 

La Fontaine carried the simile still further, 
though it is difficult to follow his argument ex- 
actly : 

" Les serments des Gascons et des Normands 
passent peu pour mots d'Evangile." 

A similar vein is the following Norman sup- 
plication which some cynical Frenchman has 
invented or unearthed from a hidden source: 

" Lord, I ask you not to favour me with 
good things. I merit not that which thou 
would 'st give; but tell me only where they are 
and I will go and take them. ' ' 

The inhabitants of Normandy have unques- 
tionably a strong individuality, " above all," 
says a local chronicler, " good sense and good 
judgment." The one would seem to include 
the other, but that is the way it is put. 

The Norman is always serious and always 
practical. Some call him an evil-doer, but he 
is hardly that. He is, however, exceedingly 
economical. He deplores exaggeration of all 
sorts; is seldom or ever gay with that aban- 




■-^'^I^^Sr" 



A Woman of Normandy 



The Province and Its People 85 

don one sees in the Midi or even in Touraine; 
he adores the sentiments of the old regime, 
even though it may have been his grandfather 
who lived under them; and he never ceases 
to struggle to defend the reputation of his 
country in all things. To-day he lives in a polit- 
ical hatred of change, something akin to the 
spirit which feared not Eichelieu when provin- 
cial liberties were in danger. 

« Est ce le loyer attendu 
Pour avoir si bien d^fendu 
La couronne des rois de France, 
Et pour avoir par taut de fois 
Remis et lys en assurance 
Centre I'Espagnole et I'Anglais ? " 

With the Revolution it was much the same. 
Whatever may have been Norman sympathies, 
she demanded less of those responsible for the 
overthrow than any other of the old provinces 
of France. 

All that Normandy stood for in the past, 
liberty and equal rights, were offered; but the 
province remained faithful in spirit during the 
sombre days of the Terror — and to-day the 
native will emphasize the fact by recalling to 
your memory the heroism of the young girl 
of Caen who stabbed Marat. 



86 Rambles in Normandy 

** The Normans," it has been said, — by a 
Parisian, of course, — ' ' are tolerant ; the Bre- 
tons fanatical; " and in a way this describes 
the two peoples very well. 

Most geographies, and many guide-books 
and histories, omit all mention of the etymology 
of place-names. This is greatly to be regretted ; 
from the former and the latter they ought never 
to be omitted, and they should be included in 
the guide-books as well. 

In a work like the present it is interesting 
to know something of the early nomenclature 
of a place whose present name bears at least 
some resemblance to its former appellation. 
Not always has such information been in- 
cluded, from lack of space. But it might well 
be made a part of every work which attempts 
to purvey topographical or historical infor- 
mation. 

Every one knows, or maybe supposed to know, 
that the Breton is from Brittany, and the Gas- 
con from Gascony; but how many among the 
untravelled can put their finger on that spot 
on the map of France where live the Cevenoles, 
the Tricastins, or Cauchois; or, for that mat- 
ter, can locate with exactness the country of 
the Comminges, the Caux, or the Cotentin? 

With France, more perhaps than any other 



The Province and Its People 87 

nation on the globe, names of places have 
a great romantic and patriotic significance. 
Little by little geography and history have 
given circulation to some which perhaps are 
indissolubly impressed upon the mind; but 
the foreigner — meaning, of course, those who 
are not of France — never, until he has delved 
below the surface, knows a tithe of the mean- 
ing of the well-nigh sacred devotion which the 
native has for these glorious titles which have 
become so identified with the national and life 
history of the people of France. 

With the Frenchman it is something more 
than local pride and patriotism. It is the 
country first, his town or place of birth next, 
then his present domicile, and, lastly, his own 
person. 

As with the topographical aspect, so with 
the inhabitants themselves. Great diversity 
obtains; and, in '' these little lands of 
strangers," as it has been delicately and sug- 
gestively put, the Frenchman of one locality 
is, except for a general likeness of speech 
and manner, almost as much of a stranger as 
the foreigner in race. 

The Norman has little or nothing in common 
with the Provencal; the native of French 
Flanders still less with the men of the Midi; 



88 Eambles in Normandy 

and those of the north not much of the feeling 
and spirit which actuates the life of those in 
the south. 

This is, perhaps, unique among modern na- 
tions; and, while to-day this diversity does 
not exist on such lines of stringent demarca- 
tion as formerly, the difference is still there in 
a lesser degree. 

Even though all are Frenchmen, they still 
pride themselves in proudly asserting their 
right to be called a Norman, a Gascon, a Bour- 
guignon, or a Languedocian ; without confound- 
ing, at the same time, their love of France, the 
great mother country. 

It is interesting to note that it is perhaps a 
survival, rather than a modern interpolation, 
which accounts for most peculiar local customs 
met with in a journey across the country. 
Normandy has two neighbours which in former 
warlike times loved her but little, the Pari- 
sian and the Breton. To-day the Parisian no 
longer fears that Eouen may become the capi- 
tal of France, but the Breton still feels some 
of the old rancour of contempt for him he 
calls the " wicked Norman." Furthermore, 
the peoples of the two neighbouring provinces 
of Normandy and Brittany resemble each 



The Province and Its People 89 

other not at all; nor ever will so long as 
old customs and traditions endure. 

Normandy was divided into Upper Nor- 
mandy and Lower Normandy. There were 
formerly many separate districts, and are still, 
for tradition has by no means wholly left these 
parts. 

The country of Caux, between Eouen and 
Dieppe, which took its name from its first in- 
habitants, is the chief. The etymology of the 
word is considerably mixed. Caex, Cauex, and 
the Celtic Kalet all come to the fore. The 
earliest inhabitants were known as Caletes, 
which in later times became Cauchois. To-day 
one mostly sees the Cauchoises in their quaint 
cloaks and head-dresses on the quays at Cau- 
debec, or in the markets at Yvetot or Duclair. 

A physiological memorandum is found in the 
fact that the Cauchoises of eighteen years, 
when they open their mouths, show very bad 
teeth; which in all other lands is an indica- 
tion of decrepitude. 

Here in Caux, however, it is supposed to 
come from the abundant indulgence in cidre, 
which, by its corrosive properties, attacks the 
enamel of the teeth. 

France has never been considered a prolific 
country, but here in this corner of Normandy 



90 Rambles in Normandy 

the contrary seems to be the case. A Rouen 
daily journal published recently a notice of a 
matter which was just then attracting the at- 
tention of the Society for the Protection of 
Children. It seems among eight mothers of 
Yvetot, whom in recent years it had helped, 
there were forty-nine children. "When inter- 
viewed, one fond mother made the following 
statement : 

" Yes, monsieur, I have eleven children all 
brought up by myself and all living. I ex- 
pect a twelfth ! As you see, they are all blonds. 
Here is my eldest. Eighteen in the month of 
May. Is it not fine? She works with me 
in the fields. The three boys work at the forge 
with their father. There is another an appren- 
tice to a saddle-maker, and there are six at 
school." 

The society makes a gift of forty francs 
upon each birth. Surely a patriotic encour- 
agement. 

The chief of the separate districts of Lower 
Normandy is the peninsula of the Cotentin. 

The Cotentin was the ancient pagus Constan- 
tinus. Its capital was Constancia, which by 
process of evolution readily became Coutances. 
It is celebrated for its rich pasturage and the 



The Province and Its People 91 

fine cattle which it breeds. The inhabitants 
are known as Cotentins or Cotentines. 

" The Cotentin race with regard for all 
reason is the type laitier par excellence,^ ^ wrote 
Arthur Young in 1789, who was mostly taken 
with the milk-giving qualities of the Cotentin 
cow, but who was an astute observer of many 
things, nevertheless. 

The Avranchin is another district of Lower 
Normandy, known anciently as the pagus Ab- 
rincatinus. Its inhabitants are known as Av- 
ranchais. They were further qualified by the 
sobriquets of Bouiderots and Bouilieux, prob- 
ably because they were employed for the most 
part in the salt-works built on the shores of the 
bay of Avranches, where they boiled the salt 
water dry of its moisture and recovered the 
salt from great cauldrons of copper. 

There is an old proverb which says : ' ' Let 
the Auvergnats return to their pastures, the 
Normans to their fishing, the soldiers to their 
warfare, and the children to their games." 

Bocage is a separate district in the Depart- 
ments of the Orne and Calvados. Its capital 
was Vire. Bocage took its name in a round- 
about way from the German word Busch, which 
in Norman French is hose, which comes from 
hois, meaning, in this case, a forest, from which 



92 Rambles in Normandy 

in turn becomes hosquet (sort of arbour), bu- 
cheron (a wood-chopper), and finally Socage. 

From a French source one learns that Bocage 
is the least productive part of all Normandy, 
and its workmen and peasants, known as Bo- 
cains, are the most laborious. 

There is a charming little tale of the Bocage, 
by Anatole France, called '' The Cure's Mi- 
gnonette, ' ' which tells the story of a dove who 
came to a cure and brought untold blessings 
upon his parish. It is but a slight tale, but 
quite worth looking up for its charming senti- 
ment. 

Of the women of this part of Normandy the 
following remark by Arthur Young, the agri- 
culturist, who wrote a century and a quarter 
ago, is pertinent. Writing from Caen, he says : 

' ' I could not but remark an uncommon num- 
ber of pretty women. Is there no antiquarian 
that deduces English beauty from the mixture 
of Norman blood? " He was a profound agri- 
culturist, Arthur Young, and he wrote mostly 
of cabbages, departing occasionally into the 
realms of kings, but pretty women seem to 
have pursued him, or he them, for a bit farther 
on in his delightful " Travels in France," he 
says: 

'' Supped at the Marquis d'Ecougal's at his 



The Province and Its People 93 

chateau La Frenaye " (Calvados). " If that 
French marquis cannot show me as good crops 
of corn and turnips as I would wish, there is a 
noble one of something else — of beautiful and 
elegant daughters, the charming copies of 
agreeable mothers." 

Robert Wace, the Norman poet (1120-80), 
put the following words into the mouth of Will- 
iam the Conqueror as he lay on his death-bed. 
They characterize the Norman of those times 
as faithfully as do the romances of Flaubert 
and the contes of Maupassant to-day. 

« En Normandie e gent moult fiere, 
Je ne sai gent de tel manieve 
Normant ne sunt proz saint justise 
Foler et plaisier lor convient ; 
Se reis soz piez toz terns les tient, 
E ki bien les def alt et poigne, 
D'els parra fare sa besoigne. 
Orgueillos sunt Normant 6 fier 
Evant^or 6 bombancier ; 
Toz terns les devreit Ten piaisier 
Kar mult sunt fort a justisier." 

The gent moult fiere of Normandy proved 
his ancient strength eight hundred years later 
at Bernay, when three hundred of the National 
Guard stopped the advance-guard of the Prus- 
sian army under General Bredow three leagues 



94 Rambles in Normandy 

from the town. It was a daring thing to have 
done, since the Prussians were in overwhelming 
numbers, and the town was mulcted to the tune 
of a hundred thousand francs for the valour 
of its citizens, as a contribution of war. 

The French coast is ever a source of joy and 
pride to the Frenchman; and no part in all 
its twenty-nine hundred kilometres is more fre- 
quented by summer dwellers by the sea than 
the strip along the Channel and the Strait of 
Calais from Dunkerque to Brest. 

Picardy, Normandy, and Brittany all have 
their partisans; but the shores of Normandy 
and Brittany are the ideal spots wherein the 
Frenchman loves to while away a summer's 
day. 

No country of Europe, unless it be Greece, 
has its coast-line more deeply serrated than 
France. Brittany is rocky, Normandy high 
with its chalk cliffs, and Picardy populous with 
wind-swept dunes of sand and shingle. Each 
presents a distinct variety of attractions. 

The downs of the north are the real lower 
country; but all this changes as one comes up 
with the Norman border. Then come great 
chalk cliffs, grass-crowned, and at their feet 
a pebbly strand. Occasionally granite ledges 
crop out, as they do in Brittany, until one 



The Province and Its People 95 



reaches the Bay of Mont St. Michel, where the 
real Breton coast-line begins. 

Cap de la Heve, which shelters Havre on 
the northeast, is one of those freaks of nature 
which have a great interest for the geologist 
and the geographers. It is the same great 
chalky cliff that we find on the south coast of 
England, and eastward toward Etretat, where 
are those wonderfully carved picture-rocks, 
so loved of painters of a former day. 

Here on the northern edge of the ancient 
district of Caux, the vociferous waves and cur- 
rents of the British Channel eat up the coast- 
line at the rate of a couple of metres a year, 
sometimes in one place and sometimes in an- 
other. 

These great, chalky cliffs continue westward 
to the Cotentin peninsula; or would continue 
did not the Seine estuary rend them in twain 
with its mighty flow. 

At Trouville advantage has been taken of 
the formation, and a modern roadway built 
which, in its way, quite rivals the celebrated 
arch of the Riviera. At present it serves merely 
the purpose of the gay life of Trouville, and 
automobiles, omnibuses, and motor-cycles rush 
around its death-dealing curves and sharp de- 



96 Rambles in Normandy 

scents, to their great risk, and causing an oc- 
casional death. 

There is a flaring red danger-board, a guide- 
post and telephonic communication with a red 
cross hospital plainly set out in view, but even 
this does not check the recklessness of the road- 
users in these parts. 

Just beyond Trouville is Dives, from whence 
departed the fleet of the Conqueror in his de- 
scent upon England. To-day, the port is choked 
by the debris thrown into it by the sea. 

Gradually the chalk cliffs give way to sand- 
dunes or high-rolling greensward, until Gran- 
ville is reached on the other side of the pen- 
insula. 

Throughout all this extent the coast-line is 
dotted here and there with long stretches of 
sand and pebbles, which once and again have 
been turned into popular resorts, where inland 
France comes to enjoy the sea-breezes. 

How many French affect this sort of a holi- 
day it is impossible to say; but they seem to 
have a decided preference for the northern 
shore, and are quite as great devotees to the 
seaside — as it is known to Americans, and 
watering-places, as the English call it — as 
those of other nationalities. 

Trouville and Deauville, with perhaps Co- 



The Province and Its People 97 

boiirg, are the most brilliant and fashionable 
of these resorts in Normandy, though there are 
many others of lesser repute and decidedly 
quieter. 

The western coast of the Cotentin peninsula 
has for its chief centre the picturesque old and 
new towns of Granville, which face the great 
islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and 
Sark, the Channel Isles of the English, and the 
lies Normandes of the French. 

This western shore-line of the peninsula 
marks the boundary between Normandy and 
Brittany at Pontorson, the gateway to Mont 
St. Michel; of blessed memory to tourists for 
its old fortress-abbey — and Madame Pou- 
lard 's chickens and omelets. 

a Tjig granite isles of La Manche," as the 
French geologists call them, comprise the Chan- 
-nel Islands, which belong to Great Britain, and 
the lies Chausey, a hideously terrible forma- 
tion of jagged toothlike rocks which would 
prove a veritable ocean graveyard, were they 
but in a line of direct travel. A few miserable 
fishermen's huts are the sole habitations on 
this bleak, wind-swept island; but the pictur- 
esque desolation of it all will quite make up 
for the lack of other features, if one is ven- 
turesome enough to make the journey by sail- 



98 Rambles in Normandy / 

boat from Granville, and is prepared to rough 
it in the same manner as do the Cotentin 
fishermen themselves. 

The Rocher des Moines and the Roches dn 
Rhinoceros are quaint and gaunt indeed, but 
one wonders — as usual with regard to such 
fantastically named topographical features — 
where the resemblance comes in. 

The coast-line of Normandy is generally 
high, cut once and again into canyon-like val- 
leys, the chief of which are those of the Ault, 
Bresle, Arques, St. Valery-en-Caux, Fecamp, 
and Etretat. 

Treport lies at the mouth of the Bresle, and 
Dieppe at the mouth of the Arques. 

To-day the commerce of other days on this 
coast is threatened. Dieppe has held its own 
as a fishing port, perhaps, and in a way, so 
has Treport; but there is no deep-sea traffic 
now of any size between Havre and Boulogne, 
save the cross-channel passenger traffic be- 
tween Dieppe and New Haven, and the Terre 
Neuve fisheries of Fecamp. 

There have been rumours from time to time 
of the establishing of a deep-sea canal between 
Dieppe and Paris, but the project is too vision- 
ary for serious consideration, and the great 
waterway of the Seine is certainly all-sufficient. 



The Province and Its People 99 

From the Cape of the Heve to Cape Barfleur 
extends the delta of the Seine, or the Bay of 
Calvados as it is sometimes known, — the vast 
delta of the Seine. 

The Bresle is a lively little river which purls 
away the seventy kilometres of its length be- 
tween the hills of Picardy and Normandy, and 
passes Aumale and Eu, to finish its course in 
the Channel at Treport. 

The Arques flows gently down fifty kilometres 
of one of the richest valleys of Normandy, and 
enters the sea at the busy cross-channel port 
of Dieppe. Its confluence is made up of the 
streams of the Varenne, Bethune, and Eaulne. 
Between the mouth of the Seine and Cape of 
the Hague is the Touques, which comes down 
by Lisieux and Pont I'Eveque, for a hundred 
kilometres, and finishes at Trouville ; the Dives, 
'with a waterway of a hundred kilometres also 
ending on the coast at Dives; the Orne, which 
comes to the sea at Caen, after 150 kilometres 
through rich pasture-lands ; the Seniles and the 
Drome, two tiny rivers of Calvados, and the 
Vire, of 130 kilometres ; the Douves ; the Taute ; 
the Divette ; and the See and the Selune of the 
Cotentin. 

From St. Malo, eastward to the north of the 
Somme, is a particularly vulnerable coast-line. 



100 Rambles in Normandy 

which, in times past, was frequently attacked 
by the cross-channel brethren of the Normans. 
To-day, however, with strong defences at Cher- 
bourg and the forts at Hogue and Havre, and 
others at Dieppe, there is little likelihood of 
its being again invaded without warning, 
though the memories of Gisors (1119), Crecy, 
(1346), and Agincourt (1415) die hard. 

The gateways to the rich Norman country- 
side are both numerous and ample, however; 
and it may be depended upon that the dis- 
tribution of the French army is such that ample 
protection is afforded to such important en- 
trances as Granville, Caen, the little rivers 
Dives and Touques, and the galaxy of towns 
and cities lying above and below the cliffs 
at the mouth of the Seine, to say nothing 
of Dieppe and Fecamp, and the cities of the 
Seine valley itself. 



CHAPTEE II. 

NORMAN INDUSTRIES 

Normandy is still a land fertile and rich, as 
well by nature and the product of the soil, as 
by the industry of her people. 

The following charming lines by Frederic 
Berat are appreciative. 

« J'ai vu les champs de I'Helv^tie, 
Et ses chalets et ses glaciers ; 
J'ai vu le ciel de I'ltalie 
Et Venise et ses gondoliers ! 
En saluant chaque patrie 
Je me disais : aucun s^jour 
N'est plus beau que ma Normand 
C'est le pays qui m'a donn6 le jour." 

Not alone from this does one infer the prom- 
inence which the province holds, and has held 
in industrial and economic affairs since the 
time when Henry II. really broke the power of 
the Norman barons ; but there are self-evident 
intimations at every turn of one's footsteps, 
l?p:hether by the highroads or by the by-roads. 

101 



102 Rambles in Normandy 

■ ' 

It is difficult to imagine what France would 
have been to-day had it not been for the dis- 
aster of the Franco-Prussian war, the rebuff 
of Fashoda, and the unrest attendant upon the 
Dreyfus affair. 

France has held her own remarkably, when 
one considers the depression which periodically 
falls upon other European nations. 

Still, there is a great influx of foreign influ- 
ences to France which, in all but individual 
manners and customs, is making itself felt. 

The English who have settled here in the 
great woollen industries in Normandy, at Lou- 
viers, Elbeuf, and in the neighbourhood of 
Rouen, are a notable indication of outside in- 
fluence; but still more so is the recent advent 
of things American, to say nothing of the forty 
thousand persons who form the permanent 
American population of Paris. 

American farming machinery is seen every- 
where, and if the American automobile has 
found no place in France, American machine 
tools are greatly in use in the manufacture of 
the horseless carriages of France. The French 
are to-day wearing and copying the fashions 
in American boots and shoes almost exclu- 
sively, and are imitating the Americans in their 
habits and customs of travel. 



Norman Industries 103 



A universal English innovation one sees 
everywhere is tea; but it is not the afternoon 
variety, except in the case of the " five 
o' clocks " of the Paris boulevards. Your 
Frenchman drinks his tea — and likes it very 
much, apparently — after his dinner. Other 
folk have the idea that this tends to sleepless- 
ness, but not so the French. 

In a recent number of a French journal de- 
voted to travel an admiring and appreciative 
Frenchman says: 

" The English and Americans come in great 
numbers to our land, and travel hither and 
thither over our great railway lines. They 
spend their money liberally, and to them we owe 
the opportunity of doing all that we can to 
facilitate not only their travel, but to make 
pleasant their stay amongst us. We should re- 
construct the sanitary arrangements of our 
hotels, and encourage the circulation of in- 
formation with regard to places of interest." 

And all this the French are doing, and if it 
is coming but slowly, so far as the country-side 
is concerned, it is most surely coming, and to- 
day no more delightful travel-ground is to be 
found in all the world than France, and Nor- 
mandy and Brittany and Touraine in particu- 
lar. 



104 Rambles in Normandy 

This, then, is one of the industries that is 
an important one in France, and the coming of 
the automobile and the revival of travel by 
road will do much for the increased prosperity 
of the genuine market-town inns of Normandy. 

In the Seine valley, in the heart of Nor- 
mandy, has sprung up a cotton and woollen 
manufacturing industry of immense propor- 
tions. Much of the wool is a local product, 
but large quantities of it in the raw state are 
brought from the river Plata; while at the 
wharves of Rouen are vast warehouses filled 
with cotton from the Southern States of Amer- 
ica, ready to be worked into cloth by the busy 
looms of France. 

The woollen mills of Elbeuf and Louviers are 
now turning out worsteds and cloth for men 
and women's clothing of a quality and quantity 
quite rivalling that of Bradford, in England, 
in the olden times. 

As far back as 1780-90 Arthur Young 
wrote of a visit to a great woollen manufac- 
turer of Louviers, where he saw '' a fabric un- 
questionably the first woollen in the world, if 
success, beauty of fabric, and an inexhaustible 
invention to supply with taste all the cravings 
of fancy can give the merit of such superiority. 
Perfection goes no farther than the Vigonia 



Norman Industries 105 

cloths of M. Decretot." This, from an Eng- 
lishman born and bred in the Midlands, is 
praise indeed. 

The country to the west of Evreux forms the 
very heart of Normandy. It is a region of rich 
farms, great prairies, and apple orchards, in 
which apple-trees are set out twenty-five or 
thirty to the acre. Nowhere more than in the 
Plain of St. Andre and the country district of 
Neubourg, which immediately environs Evreux, 
is there to be found anything more character- 
istically Norman. 

Little by little great pasture-lands have been 
made into tilled fields, to the prosperity of the 
individual and the nation as well. Were the 
English farming peasants able and willing to 
work small holdings in England in the same 
way, who knows but what prosperity might 
come to the small farmer there? 

Through these rich lands of the Departments 
of the Eure, Orne, and Calvados flow the Eure, 
the Iton, the Eisle, the Touques, the Dives, and 
the Orne, which nourish them abundantly, and 
give a thriving aspect to the towns and coun- 
try-side alike. That Normandy is so plentifully 
watered, accounts for its bountiful pasture- 
lands and prairies ; which, by a process known 
to all the world, produces most abundant 



106 Rambles in Normandy 

supplies of butter and cheese, to say nothing 
of such by-products as the cattle themselves. 
It is doubtful if the cattle-raising industry of 
itself has a tithe of the economic value and 
importance of the trade in milk products, 
which in some parts of Normandy is of tre- 
mendous proportions. 

The butter of Gournay (Lower Seine), of St. 
L6, and Isigny is famous throughout England 
and France, while the savoury cheeses — above 
all the Camembert and the Pont 1 'Eveque — are 
exported to all ends of the earth. A good cow 
in the Pont 1 'Eveque country produces cheese 
to the value of 350 francs a year; and at Li- 
sieux, the centre of the Camembert industry, as 
much as five hundred francs worth in value. 

Agricultural machinery is coming fast into 
use, and increased crops are the result. In 
1862 there were but 10,850 reaping-machines 
in France, but their number is now more than 
quadrupled. In a country where nearly fifty 
per cent, of its inhabitants follow agricultural 
pursuits, this may be considered as of some 
significance. 

The Cotentin cow gives as much as twenty- 
five litres of milk per day. With the cows of 
the Cotentin and the horses of La Perche lies 
the chief glory of the product of Normandy 







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Nonnan Industries 107 

to-day. The industry of horse-raising in Nor- 
mandy is most prosperous in the valley and 
Department of the Orne. Northwestern France 
produces three races of horses, the Percheron, 
the Merlerault, and the Breton. The Percheron 
is mostly raised in La Perche, the Merlerault 
is a crossing of the Norman with English 
stock ; and the Breton is a hardy little animal, 
not at all beautiful to look at, but, nevertheless, 
a most useful and economical animal to own, 
which is saying a good deal in its favour. The 
chief horse-trading centres in Normandy are 
Alen§on, Vernon, Bernay, and Mortagne. 

In general, the cattle of Normandy are fa- 
mous for the quality and richness of their 
flesh none the less than for their products, and 
the Norman beef and mutton are much in de- 
mand in the markets of Paris. 

The market-towns of Normandy are very 
numerous and important, but they are by no 
means so picturesque as are those of the south 
of France, or even of the cities and towns 
along the Loire, or in Brittany. Market-day 
is more of a matter-of-fact, hard-headed com- 
merce, with the Norman peasant, than it is an 
opportunity for a day in town. 

To the market the Norman peasant and his 
wife come to sell and to buy, in a tilt-cart, 



108 Rambles in Normandy 

usually attached to an ancient-looking, though 
not decrepit, white horse, who is used to only 
moderately long journeys. As a matter of 
business the peasant leaves his home by nine 
in the morning — the height of the market 
usually being just before midday. By nine, 
then, all is ready, — the eggs in the pannier, the 
chickens in their baskets, and the cheeses and 
butter between crisp, cool leaves of beet-root 
or cabbage. Crossing the courtyard, a door is 
opened, disclosing the old harness hung on its 
iron nail. Soon it is on the back of the old 
white horse, and he is marched forth to be at- 
tached to the shafts of the great, high, two- 
wheeled tilt-cart, which seems very unsteady. 
When the baskets are all finally disposed, and 
the peasant and his wife are seated, it seems 
even more so; but as no one has ever seen 
it overturned, the Norman peasant's cart must 
be a most satisfactory vehicle. 

There is one event which comes off period- 
ically in Normandy, which has never had much 
prominence given to it from the outside, and 
that is the fair at Guibray, — a suburb of Fa- 
laise, the birthplace of the Conqueror. Next to 
the great fair at Beaucaire, of which Dumas 
writes in ' ' Monte Cristo, ' ' the fair at Guibray 
is the greatest in all France ; and is of the pop- 



Norman Industries ' 109 

ular order of the trading-fair at Nijni-Nov- 
gorod in Russia. 

At Guibray the event has been held for many, 
many years, though of late its importance has 
fallen somewhat away. A hundred years ago 
merchandise was sold to the value of 100,000,- 
000 francs, while at Beaucaire the sales some- 
times totalled 500,000,000. 

Besides this, Normandy has the great horse- 
fair of Bernay, held at the Fete des Rameaux 
(Palm Sunday), the most famous and largest 
of its kind in France. 

These great fairs of Normandy are one of 
the most interesting of all the attractions to the 
stranger. 

No one should expect to find a town at its 
normal aspect on one of these occasions, and 
sightseeing of the conventional order is out 
of the question at such times ; but, on the other 
hand, one's gain is great, if he is a lover of 
such assemblages. Oftentimes the whole town 
will be found to be given over to the great 
local event, with the churches and musees 
closed, and the tables d 'botes overcrowded. 

Artists and lovers of new sensations, es- 
pecially, will not mind this, for these local fairs 
and holidays will furnish much amusement and 
edification that would otherwise be missed. 



110 Rambles in Normandy 

Colour and noise and life is everywhere. 
Everything smacks of gaiety and good nature, 
and for the most part it is distinctly local. 
Parisian costumes and manners have no place 
here, and one must be prepared to take things 
as he finds them. 

The almanacs and local journals will give 
particulars of these events, and one can avoid 
them or not as is his mood. One cannot, how- 
ever, claim to have really seen Normandy un- 
less he has attended at least one fair. 

Normandy is one of the greatest wheat- 
growing sections of France. Every plain, 
valley, and hillside is literally covered with it. 

In the midst of all this agrarian industry are 
set many towns and villages alive with an in- 
dustry of another sort. On the Avre, at No- 
nancourt, are the great spinning mills of M. 
Waddington, whose name and fame as a natu- 
ralized Frenchman are world-wide. At Evreux 
are great establishments which manufacture 
linen, cotton-stuffs, hosiery, and kindred prod- 
ucts in vast quantities ; while at Bayeux, Alen- 
Qon, Argenton, and Caen lace is manufactured 
on a large scale. Again, cotton and woollen 
stuffs are produced at Elbeuf, Louviers, and 
Rouen; leather at Pont Audemer and Evreux; 
yarn and thread at Bernay, Alengon, Mortagne, 



Norman Industries 



111 



Lisieux, and Vire, and pins and needles at 
Rugles and Laigle. 

In addition, the fisheries and oyster cultures 
of Normandy are very great; likewise the 
coastwise shipping, to say nothing of the trans- 
atlantic traffic of the great liners from the ports 
of Havre and Cherbourg. 

Out of Fecamp go many deep-sea fishermen 




^ J/f ^i ■v.-''<V -^S^" 









Raising the Sugar-beet 



bound for the Newfoundland banks; and Tre- 
port, Yport, Dieppe, and Granville are impor- 
tant home ports for the mackerel and herring 
fleets of the North Sea and the North Atlantic 
Ocean. 

There is a great and still growing interest 
in France, and indeed in many other parts of 
Continental Europe, in the sugar-beet industry. 



112 Rambles in Normandy 

In Normandy it is very considerable, and 
'' potato spirit " and '^ beet sugar " are two 
products of the soil which of late have added 
much to its prosperity. 



CHAPTER III. 

MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 

Wheeeas England is a country whose land is 
owned by a comparative few, France is owned 
by the many. Of its population of forty odd 
millions there are nearly six million land- 
owners, almost, it would seem, one to each 
family. 

The plots are small, not more than ten acres, 
perhaps, on an average, for the peasant land- 
holder; but the degree of cultivation which 
they have attained is remarkable to one who 
comes from the far West of America, where 
only farming on a gigantic scale is pursued. 

For a long time the Norman farmer held 
out against any ideas of progress with regard 
to machinery. He did not exactly plough with 
the proverbial crooked limb of Biblical times, 
but the implement with which he laid out his 
astonishingly straight furrows was, until re- 
cently, an antiquated piece of iron, which he 
handled in a most laborious manner. 

113 



114 Rambles in Normandy- 

To-day American sowing and reaping ma- 
chines, or Continental imitations of them, are 
everywhere making their way, and the labo- 
rious, patient work of a former day is now 
being accomplished much more handily. 

The French are great lovers of their land, 
the Normans in particular. They do not emi- 
grate like the Germans or the Italians, and 
they are not great travellers, out of their own 
bailiwick. 

The dwellers of the country-side of France 
are about the richest per capita of any nation 
on the earth. The enormous Franco-German 
war debt was promptly paid, and, stowed away 
in small parcels, there are doubtless hundreds 
of millions of francs which are never put into 
circulation. 

French farming is carried on most assidu- 
ously, and a single plot of land becomes won- 
derfully productive under the hands of its de- 
voted peasant proprietor. 

One is wont to commiserate with the 
European peasant, who is supposed to be taxed 
to death, but, as a matter of fact, the French 
peasant is taxed very little. The recent tax 
exemptions of French farmers have caused a 
decrease in the revenue of 25,000,000 francs, 
and this sum has been saved to the very small- 



Manners and Customs 115 

est of taxpayers. Nevertheless, some taxes 
exist, though they are almost infinitesimal. 
There are more than 8,000,000 persons who each 
pay a land tax ranging from ten to twenty 
sous only; more than 3,000,000 who pay from 
five to fifteen francs ; and more than 2,000,000 
land-holders who each pay from twenty to 
thirty francs per annum. If a farmer pays 
a rent of 250 francs or under he is untaxed; 
if he pays eight hundred francs, he is taxed 
only on a part, but if he pays more than eight 
hundred francs, he is taxed nine per cent, on 
the whole sum. 

Almost all taxes here are based on incomes 
or rents. Business property is taxed eight per 
cent, of the amount for which it is rent, and 
if it is idle it is not taxed at all. If a store 
or house burns down the tax on the land stops 
from that moment, and if a factory stops work 
its tax stops. Every loom in the silk, cotton, 
and woollen mills of Normandy — where they 
are very numerous — pays a tax while it is 
working; but if it is broken or becomes idle, 
the tax officials are notified, and the tax is not 
collectible. 

There is money in trees in France; and 
in Normandy, quite as much as in any other 
part, one sees those long, regimental rows of 



116 Rambles in Normandy 

poplars which make walled alleys of the great 
national highways and the banks of rivers as 
well. 

The French appreciate the commercial value 
of their forests. There are vast woodlands 
belonging to the government, and private hold- 
ings in which the trees are as well cared for as 
in a city park. 

Only matured trees are ever cut in a national 
forest, and every piece of fallen wood is saved. 

Normandy has one of the finest and most cele- 
brated of these great national forests in the 
forest domain of Lyons, a few miles southeast 
of Rouen, just north of the ancient district 
of Vexin. 

Some of the trees are a hundred feet high 
and bare of branches, with only a tassel left on 
the top. Others are full-limbed, and others 
are just sprouting new growth on all sides. 
Poplars are grown for their branches, and are 
finally cut down for wood or furniture. The 
branches grow rapidly. They are cut otf year 
after year, put into bundles, and sold to 
the bakers, to make the hot fires necessary for 
the crisp crust on the French bread. There is 
such a demand for them that raising them is 
one of the chief industries of France. The pop- 
lars are planted in places which are good for 



Manners and Customs 117 

nothing else ; and after five years eacli will an- 
nually produce at least twenty sous in value in 
mere trimmings. Later on, the trees are 
thinned out and cut down and sold. Willows 
are grown in the same way, their sprouts being 
used for baskets, and the basket-maker is a 
familiar figure in nearly every town and village 
in the river valleys of Normandy. 

Market-gardening in France is no inconsider- 
able industry. Not only does it supply the mar- 
kets at Paris, but a vast product is sent across 
Channel to help nourish old England ; potatoes 
and onions from Brittany, and cauliflowers, 
lettuce, radishes, etc., from Normandy, to say 
nothing of cheese, eggs, and butter, which are 
usually a product of the same farmyard. 

The French have one million acres devoted to 
gardens and fruits; and, throughout the coun- 
try, one sees fields of hotbeds and glass frames 
propped over plants outside the beds. In many 
places glass bells are used to cover the individ- 
ual plants, and there are some sections which 
raise early potatoes under glass for export to 
London. Apparently, about the only vegetable 
or fruit crop which Normandy does not export 
is the cider-apple. 

The French study the soil and the sun, and 
they coax both to work. They feed the crops 



118 Rambles in Normandy 

rather than the land, and in places get three 
crops a year through intensive cultivation. 
Near Cherbourg, cabbage is raised early in 
February. After it is taken off a crop of po- 
tatoes is planted, and a third crop comes on in 
the autumn, and this is on land that has been 
used for generations without becoming impov- 
erished. 

The farming peasant of the Seine valley is 
in every way a kindly person. He will pose for 
the artist, does not object to being snap-shotted 
while at work by the amateur photographer, 
and will courteously help the automobilist who 
is in trouble to set himself to rights. 

For all this, he wants and expects nothing, 
save that perhaps he will take a glass of wine or 
cigar at the nearest public house if there hap- 
pens to be one near by. An inquiring stranger 
is not persona non grata, and the Norman 
peasant-farmer is more than glad to stop and 
discuss the good or bad times, or the state of 
the crops and the cattle market; his quid pro 
quo seeming usually to be your opinion about 
the state of things in the adjoining competing 
community which may send its products to the 
same market as he does himself. 

Certainly a close-mouthed, ill-natured Nor- 
man farmer is a rare thing in the Seine valley, 



Manners and Customs lid 

or indeed in any other part of the province. 
Not so in some other lands, where every civil 
advance of the stranger is met with a taciturn 
reply or a miserable whine against a presup- 
posed unjust fate which permits a land-holder 
to expect the tenant to pay rent. 

Normandy, where it borders upon the Seine, 
comes very near being the artists' ideal sketch- 
ing-ground. It has all the attributes of the open 
country, as well as great industrial centres with 
picturesque chimney-stacks, and possesses a 
part of the most charming seacoast of France. 
Etretat and Honfleur are famous, Caudebec-en- 
Caux, in a way, is one of the reputed paradises 
for artists, while Les Andelys, Giverny, and 
La Roche-Guyon are — well, spots which as 
soon as they shall become popular with tour- 
ists will lose much of their charm, which is 
to-day natural, simple, and characteristically 
local. Throughout the open country in the 
Seine valley one may contemplate a succession 
of farmyards, orchards, and great brown and 
green patches of cultivated land which will make 
him envious of the genius of a Daubigny or a 
Millet. 

The great walled farms of Normandy are 
ever a source of surprise to the stranger and 
of pride to the occupant, who, like enough, is 



120 Eambles in Normandy 

the fifth of his line ; for the peasant-proprietor 
is a power in the land to-day, as he has been 
since before the Revolution. 

Usually, however, the peasant-proprietor, in 
Normandy at least, is not of the ambitious 
order that aspires to more than a small area 
to work as his own, compared with his appar- 
ently more opulent neighbour, who, perhaps, 
farms his land on shares with the actual land- 
owner, a practice known throughout France as 
metayage. Besides the two smaller classes of 
farmers, those who hire or work on shares, or 
those who own small tracts, there are the large 
landed proprietors who farm their own land 
on a scale known as high farming. The three 
together have made possible the prosperity of 
the greater part of the France of to-day; and 
in no other country can such a forcible economic 
lesson be learned of the power of a country to 
be self-sustaining. 

Before now it has been said that Normandy 
is monotonous, but this is not true. Writers 
have compared its angularities, so to speak, 
with the nicely rounded contours of the South 
Downs of England; and its sturdy, soil-grown 
villages with the undeniably picturesque ham- 
lets of Surrey and Sussex. One is character- 
istic of France and the other of England ; but 



Manners and Customs 121 

wherein is one more monotonous than the 
other? 

Eeally, Normandy is one of the most diver- 
sified sections in all France, and while quite 
different, in almost every way, from Brittany, 
Maine, and Anjou, its neighbours, it forms with 
them a region where one learns more of the 
varying conditions which go to make up the life 
of the nation than in any other parts of France 
as it is known to-day; for Burgundy and its 
people are still Burgundian, Provence, Pro- 
vengal, and the Midi, Spanish — or something 
very akin to it. 

The Normandy of to-day, its people, and their 
manners and customs, however, breathes the 
very spirit of history of feudal and even more 
ancient times, from the days of Eollon, the 
Dane, down through. Norman William and 
Eichard Coeur de Lion, to the times when Nor- 
mandy finally became attached to the Crown. 

'* High farming," as the working of the 
great estates is called, is, of course, a very dif- 
ferent thing from the working of small farms 
or vegetable gardens. Two and a half acres 
of land within a half a dozen miles of a city 
like Havre or Eouen, or even a town like Lon- 
viers or Vernon, will support a family of five, 
if the wife carries the produce to market 



122 Rambles in Normandy 

herself, which she generally does, leaving the 
men-folks to gossip in a cafe and to hitch up 
the mare and the family cart when the day's 
trading is finished. 

It is only as one reaches the great plain of 
La Beauce, just across the southern border of 
Normandy, that one comes upon grain culture 
on a large scale, though, to be sure, the farm 
product of Normandy is by no means limited 
to vegetables. One must not forget the cider- 
apple and its product, the true wine of the 
country. 

Olivier Basselin, who died in 1419, wrote in 
old Norman French an '' Apologie du Cidre," 
which as near as may be is translated as fol- 
lows: 

" Though Frenchmen at our drink may laugh, 
And think their taste is wondrous fine, 
The Norman cider, which we quaff, 
Is quite the equal of his wine, 
When down, down, down, it freely goes 
And charms the palate as it flows." 

Mere diffusion of property is no indication 
of the wealth of a nation, but a general pros- 
perity is; and if we except a few departments 
where the shepherding and grazing of flocks is 
the principal occupation, there are very few 
parts of France where one notices any lack of 
actual necessities. 



Manners and Customs 123 

— " • — 1 

France was poorest as a nation, and her 
working classes most prosperous, under 
Charles-le-Sage. France was richest, and her 
poor the most miserable, under Louis XIV. 

Erasmus in his ^' Adages " has said: 
" Open your purse and pay, for you enter a 
port ; pay, for you cross a bridge ; pay, for you 
use a ferry ; ' ' and in general and with much elab- 
oration there is still something more than a 
vestige of feudalism left in the life of to-day. 
What it was in former times, in France, is no 
more, but the single-taxer and the socialist — 
and some strangers from a supposedly freer 
land — will complain at the octroi, and the tax 
on matches and tobacco, as if a revenue from 
some source were not necessary for the conduct 
of the state. Whatever may first appear to 
the contrary, France is not overtaxed to-day, 
,and no evidences of oppressive taxation are 
actually to be seen in the lives of the peasants 
of the rich hillsides, or the workers of the busy 
towns of Normandy. 

Normandy must always have been a wealthy 
province; for, in Leopold Delisle's '* Study of 
the Condition of Agriculture in Normandy in 
the Middle Ages," is made the astounding — 
and authenticated — statement that ' ' the 
monks of Montdaie fed their pigs on meat." 



124 Rambles in Normandy 

Up to within the last half -century, if we are 
to believe the chroniclers, a Norman peasant 
might visit any parish in the province and note 
but little change from the aspect it bore in 
mediaeval times. 

In our day this would hardly prove to be the 
case: what with cream-separators, throbbing, 
mechanical sowers and reapers, traction-en- 
gines, and light-railways, all but the face of 
nature itself is changed — and in many parts 
not a little of that. 

In some of the depths of Brittany, the heart 
of the Cantal, or the wastes of Lozere, this 
may be true. There indeed one might find little 
changed the wooden-pronged plough and 
rough flails, and hand labour throughout still 
continues its round of pastoral life as of yore ; 
but in Normandy and the more prosperous 
north things have changed greatly, and always 
for the better. 

A bird's-eye view of the history of the prov- 
inces of France furnishes many surprises, as 
many, if not more, than would a resume of the 
affairs of the capital, which has always re- 
flected much more the sentiments of the coun- 
try-side than has the capital of any other world 
power. 

In spite of the more or less vulgar show of 



Manners and Customs 125 



the wealth of the cities, it is in the country 
that the great prosperity of France lies, and 
in Normandy this aspect is very much to the 
fore. 

The peasant-proprietor has always been a 
factor in the life and history of France. True 
enough, he was often suppressed and doubtless 
quite miserable at times; but from Martin's 
history we learn that the land transfers of the 
time of even the Crusades were notable for their 
magnitude. 

Between the seigneur and the serf were two 
classes, known as tenanciers and mainmortables. 
The former could bequeath their lands to their 
children, while the latter '' lived a freeman, 
but died a serf," as the saying goes, his heirs 
being compelled to purchase their right to in- 
herit the land. 

Just previous to the Revolution, curious as 
it may seem, one-third of French territory, ac- 
cording to Arthur Young, belonged to the peas- 
ant-proprietor. 

In 1789 four millions of French subjects were 
land-owners, but to-day there are over eight 
millions, quite a fifth of the population. 

Fenelon and La Bruyere drew sombre pic- 
tures of the French peasant of a former day; 
but they must have had in mind individual 



126 Rambles in Normandy 

cases, or at least examples far from represent- 
ative, taking into consideration the figures 
above given and the following statements. 
Foville cites the Commune of Paroz in the De- 
partment of the Seine et Marne as showing in 
1768, and again more than fifty years later, 
that the land-holdings corresponded precisely, 
both in number and extent. In an article in 
the Contemporary Review (May, 1886) M. 
Baudrillart gives many more examples in a 
similar vein. Even during the reign of Louis 
XIV., when the monarchy and aristocracy were 
at their height, the farming peasant, in his own 
right, had begun to prosper. 

Bois Guillebert wrote in 1709 : ^ ' It would 
be impossible to find here a square foot of 
ground which does not produce all that it is 
capable of producing. No man is so poor that 
he is not decently clothed and who has not 
plenty of bread and drink." (Meaning wine or 
drink made of fruit juices, as, for instance, the 
cider of Normandy — and, sometimes, an imi- 
tation of it known as '* Boisson Normand.") 

In 1738 the Abbe St. Pierre wrote: '' Almost 
all day-labourers possess a garden or a plot of 
ground." 

A half -century later Arthur Young, in turn 
pessimistic and optimistic, tells of a general 



Manners and Customs 127 

prevailing prosperity of all that part of France 
through which he travelled. He goes particu- 
larly into details with regard to Normandy 
with credit to that province; while with Brit- 
tany his estimate is almost the reverse. 

Balzac, that great delineator of French char- 
acter, sets forth, in *' Les Paysans," the some- 
what equivocal statement that the time would 
come, owing to the steady progress of the 
French peasant, when France would have 
neither horses nor cattle. In those days it is 
hardly likely that he anticipated the automo- 
bile, so we may infer that he had in mind that 
every peasant would be his own producer, and 
would accordingly not need the horse as a beast 
of burden to carry him and his produce to 
market. 

The population of Normandy is in general 
of a full-blooded, blond type, with blue eyes, 
and of a good height. Misery and poverty are 
quite the exception throughout the farming 
communities, and the long blue blouse and the 
black bonnet, which one sees so frequently on 
the fair days, usually covers a wealth that at 
first glance is quite undiscernible. 

Enter any of the ordinary farmhouses, 
which you may come across in a day's travel 



128 Rambles in Normandy 

by road, and you will see preserved many of 
the usages of olden times. 

Your Norman of the old regime will not dis- 
card an ancient custom for another merely 
because it is new — sometimes he won't even 
think of it in favour of a better one. 

It is the hour for the repast; in the kitchen 
one sees a long, narrow table covered only with 
a simple napkin, more often none at all, but 
scrubbed to such a degree of whiteness as only 
old oak can attain. 

The farmer and his household seat them- 
selves about the table, frequently on a long 
bench, and the conversation is simply that of 
the country-side, tempered with occasional ral- 
lies as to the state of crops or the weather. 
There is never a word of outside interest; for 
as likely as not the old peasant-farmer has 
never left his native village, giving to his sons 
or his daughters ' husbands the burden of what- 
ever intercourse may be necessary with the 
outside world. 

In the Cotentin there were, and still are, 
though they are not built to-day, numerous mud 
houses and barns, quite like the adobe homes 
of the Mexican Indians. Some of these struc- 
tures, in the Cotentin peninsula, before reach- 
ing Cherbourg, are of three stories in height, 



Manners and Customs 129 

with not a rock in tlieir make-up, being simply 
straw and mud strung together with beams and 
rafters. 

The earth used for the purpose was a thick 
brown loam into which straw had been kneaded, 
after which it was cut into cakes (though not 
baked, as are bricks) and built into walls by 
layers simply. The walls are sometimes two 
feet thick. All the houses need is a period- 
ical coat of whitewash to become as good as 
new. 

France has been commonly thought to be a 
non-meat-eating nation, but the consumption is 
steadily rising. Only so late as the reign of 
Louis-Philippe the consumption per capita was 
but twenty kilos, but thirty years later it had 
risen forty per cent. 

Lest any one should think that the peasant of 
Normandy knows not how to eat, let him read 
Gustave Flaubert's description of a wedding- 
breakfast, which, in part, runs as follows : 

'^ It was under the roof of the great wagon- 
shed that the table was laid. It had upon it 
four joints of beef, six fricasseed chickens, 
stewed veal, three legs of mutton, and in the 
middle a whole roasted suckling pig. At the 
corners were placed brandy in carafes and 
sweet cider in bottles, and all the glasses on the 



130 Rambles in Normandy 

board were already filled to their limits. There 
were great dishes of yellow cream which shook 
at the least shock given the table, and from 
Yvetot came the cakes and the tarts. A great 
wedding-cake completed the repast. The base 
was a sort of temple with porticos, colonnades, 
and statuettes. On the second layer was a 
^ keep ' composed of sweetmeats from Savoy, 
garnished with almonds, grapes, and oranges, 
while above the whole was a cnpid. ' ' 

It has been a commonplace to revile French 
cooking for a long time, but the custom is going 
out of fashion. 

Perhaps the English and American palate is 
becoming accustomed to a ragout of mutton, 
rabbit garenne, or chicken chasseur, and it no 
longer looks " messy." As a matter of fact, 
it is far more palatable than boiled fowl or 
the eternal boiled mutton of the average Eng- 
lish country hotel. 

In France one notes one difference, at any 
rate, in the country fare. The old-time inn, if 
it has not wholly disappeared, and there are at 
least a dozen reminiscent examples in Nor- 
mandy which prove that it has not, — at Les 
Andelys and Louviers, for example, — has be- 
come more modern in the excellence of its 
cuisine. 



Manners and Customs 131 

There is the eternal chicken, of course, which 
is, however, better than eternal boiled mutton; 
there is a surprising frequency and variety of 
omelets, but they are excellent. There is always 
a stew of some sort, but it is not made of left- 
over scraps of some one else's dinner, as is 
popularly supposed ; and there is the roast with 
its salad, which is, of course, the principal dish. 
The crisp, green, and, above all, well-dressed 
salad is an infinitely better combination than 
best English beef and Yorkshire pudding or 
mutton and dumpling. 

In France, too, there is always soup, which is 
always good — more than can be said for the 
feeble imitations of England and America. And 
there are no sticky cloying English puddings 
or abominable American pies to wind up with. 
A light, tasty cheese is served throughout Nor- 
mandy, Petit Bondon, Coeur de la Creme, Pont 
PEveque, or Gamembert, and a biscuit which 
one dips in his wine and munches thoughtfully, 
as he speculates as to what the price may be 
for all this, or how it can be done profitably 
at the price. The cost is not over three francs, 
and perhaps only two francs, fifty centimes, or 
even two francs. 

It is a curious fact that on the beaten track 
in Normandy, in the Seine valley for instance. 



132 Eambles in Normandy 

— though not all of its highroads and by-roads 
are well worn by English-speaking people as 
yet, — the patron of your hotel thinks nothing 
of it if you want the regulation Anglo-Saxon 
ham and eggs for breakfast. He only marvels 
if you drink cafe au lait with it, and then top 
off with jam or marmalade. If it is the former 
you want, you ask for confiture, but if nothing 
but marmalade will do — by which, in the Eng- 
lish-speaking world over, is meant orange 
marmalade — you ask for * ' Dundee, ' ' and you 
will get it, if your inn is in a town above ten 
thousand inhabitants. 

Until recently Englishmen and Americans 
have had a great contempt for the out-of-door 
pleasures of the French, but matters have 
changed considerably during the past decade. 

The sport of society is passed over here; 
horse-racing, golf, tennis, etc., and only such as 
form a part and parcel of the life of the com- 
mon people is considered. 

The French tendency in physical exercise is 
toward gymnastics and military drill — not 
quite to the German extent, but a nearer ap- 
proach thereto than is found elsewhere. All 
this makes for a general physical improvement, 
class for class, throughout France. Fencing 
is still greatly in vogue, though, of course, it 



Manners and Customs 133 

is practised, in its duelling aspect, only in the 
higher walks of life. When it comes to walk- 
ing, the endurance of the French inhabitant 
of the country-side is astonishing. The peasant 
will trudge slowly thirty, forty, or fifty miles 
in the round of the clock and think nothing 
of it. There is not much horseback riding in 
France, particularly among the poorer classes, 
though the influence of the army has kept it 
from dying out entirely. 

The French peasant can carry his whole fam- 
ily behind one horse in his light, high-wheeled 
cart; and, on any market-day, near a large 
town, you will see a cavalcade of country carts 
filled with a large proportion of the suburban 
population, all wending their way, for a dozen, 
fifteen, or twenty miles round about, to the mar- 
ket-town. 

" As a nation," says Hamerton, '^ the Eng- 
lish are incomparably the finer, but the English 
industrial system of increasing the concentra- 
tion in large towns is rapidly diminishing their 
collective superiority. The French generally 
are of small stature, so that a man of middle 
height in England is a tall man in France, and 
French soldiers in their summer fatigue blouses 
look to an Englishman like boys. ' ' 

Still, though the average Frenchman is short 



134 



Rambles in Normandy 




A Praannt's Cart 



<^^' 



in stature, he is often muscular and capable of 
bearing great fatigue. His shortness is mainly 



Manners and Customs 135 

in his legs, yet he strides vigorously in march- 
ing. Sometimes one finds a tall, powerful man 
in a French village, such as the men of Louis- 
Napoleon's famous " Cent Guards," and more 
often in Normandy than elsewhere, whereas in 
Brittany, even the inland country peasant has 
manifestly the cut of the sailorman whose ranks 
he mostly fills. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHATEAUX OF OTHER DAYS 

The art and architecture of Normandy with 
respect to religious edifices, and not less with 
regard to its feudal chateaux, is of a peculiar 
variety, quite apart from the other types seen 
in France. 

The birth of Norman architecture, as it is 
commonly known, was undoubtedly an out- 
growth of the older Romanesque. 

The Scandinavian conquest of Neustria left 
no arts or evidences of art that would demon- 
strate to the least degree that these peoples 
brought any innovations of building with them. 

The Merovingian period itself has left but 
few remains which are characteristic of any 
development of artistic taste. Hence such 
monuments as exist of Merovingian or the pre- 
historic civilizations are very meagre, and com- 
prise no structures of any magnitude. 

The Romans, however, coming between the 
two, have left very visible and splendid re- 

136 



The Chateaux of Other Days 137 



mains of their sojourn here, — though to-day 
in a ruinous condition, — the great theatre at 
Lillebonne being perhaps the chief and the most 
magnificent. Other important remains of this 
period are found near Lisieux, and Valognes, 
in the Cotentin. 

The Romans built many defences in the re- 
gion, particularly Limes, near Dieppe, and 
Chatelliers in the Department of the Orne. 
Generally the Roman defences in Lower Nor- 
mandy were disposed in a double range of walls ; 
and from these developed on a smaller scale 
the feudal chateau of later times. 

Rollon and his companions had given a great 
impetus to the feudal regime in the duchy, and 
rival seigneurs built themselves strongholds, 
if possible, more formidable than those of their 
neighbours. By the ninth century this for- 
tress-building gave way to establishments en- 
dowed with more comforts and luxuries of a 
domestic nature, but they continued to be forti- 
fied, as they were for a long time after. 

The remains of the Chateaux of Arques, 
Domfront, Falaise (the birthplace of the Con- 
queror), Gisors, and Gaillard (the '^ daughter 
of a year " of Richard the Lion-hearted) were 
all wonders of their time. 

All travellers for pleasure or edification have 



138 



Rambles in Normandy 



a lively interest in chateaux, whether they be 
of the feudal variety of fortress, or the com- 
paratively modern domestic establishments of 
the Renaissance period. 

Normandy had quite a representative share 
of both classes of these mediaeval monuments, 
and their existing remains to-day are numer- 




Donjon of Arques (diagram) 

ous and admirably cared for, ruins though 
many of them be. 

According to Viollet-le-Duc, the Normans 
were the first to apply defensive works to a 
residential chateau, that is, an edifice which 
was primarily something more than a fortress. 

Such strongly defended chateaux as that of 
Arques near Dieppe, whose donjon was the 













I 

e 



The Chateaux of Other Days 139 

last to surrender to the French king after the 
conquering of the province, were exceedingly 
rare. 

In general, the Norman chateaux of the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries were little more 
than a rectangular or round donjon, sur- 
rounded by exterior works of relatively little 
strategic importance. They were always de- 
fended by a deep fosse, and by subterranean 
passages which would allow the defending 
forces to move under cover from one point to 
another ; and in addition, they were frequently 
placed upon the summit of a hill or rocky prom- 
ontory, as was the case at Les Andelys, La 
Roche-Guyon, Falaise, and Domfront. 

The Norman influence of chateau-building 
spread widely. England, of course, followed 
speedily; but their keeps or donjons were more 
often rectangular and seldom circular. 

In the Vendee at Ponzanges, at Beaugency, 
on the Loire at Montrichard, and at Loches, 
the Norman influence prevailed, but still the 
most complete and successful examples were 
confined to Norman soil. 

In the thirteenth century the chateaux 
throughout France all began to be built on one 
specific plan and arrangement, keeping, mean- 



140 Rambles in Normandy 

while, to the best traditions of Merovingian 
and Carlovingian times. 

By the end of the thirteenth century the 
feudality, more or less ruined by the Crusades, 
were no longer in a position to build great 
independent fortresses ; and the chateau by the 
middle of the century following had been shorn 
of many of its former fortifying attributes and 
became merely the great luxurious habitation 
of the seigneurs who, in other days, would have 
made war, or been attacked on their own ac- 
count. 

Some sort of defences they always retained, 
at least until a much later date ; a fortified gate- 
way, perhaps, a crenelated battlement, partly 
for use and partly for decorative purposes, and 
a moat, though oftentimes it was a dry one 
from the absence of near-by water. 

By the time the fifteenth century had dawned 
many of the old chateaux of Normandy had 
been repaired, restored, or rebuilt, and many 
new edifices were erected; but with the Renais- 
sance a distinctly new type was created, — that 
of a palatial country-house, which to all intents 
and purposes may be classed generally as 
modern chateaux, even though they may have 
been built up from ancient foundations. 

Of this class in Normandy the most prom- 



The Chateaux of Other Days 141 

inent were the magnificent establishment of the 
Archbishops of Rouen at Gaillon, the Chateau 
Inferieure at La Roche-Guyon, the Chateaux 
d'Eu, d'Anet, and Fontaine Henri. 

If one could trace the history of all the cha- 
teaux of France, or even of Normandy and 
Brittany, to which are attached facts of his- 
torical or romantic purport, or which are en- 
dowed with artistic tributes, or are pictur- 
esquely environed, the results would make a 
formidable and most interesting work. 

In France by the end of the ninth century 
there were some twenty thousand chateaux, so 
recognized by their own individual names. 

The chatelain, or feudal lord, was a veritable 
king in his own domain, with his standard, his 
court of justice, and his vassals; and, quite 
rightly, in many cases he said to his people, 
,' ' I will defend you against the enemy, and give 
you the right of refuge behind the thick walls 
of my chateau; at the moment of danger the 
pont-levis will lower for you, your wives, and 
your children." 

The discussion of the rights or wrongs of 
the feudal system is too big a subject to have 
place here; and, while the serfs of a former 
day may have suffered in many instances, there 
was a certain paternal care which doubtless 



142 Rambles in Normandy 

more than overshadowed the ill deeds of the 
comparatively few overbearing and tyrannical 
lords. 

Not every tenantless and ruined chateau or 
seigneurial manor of Normandy is a monument 
of greed and rapacity, and one need not con- 
jure up a picture of other days, with peasants ' 
fields trampled and uptorn, and cattle and grain 
seized, in order to draw disparaging contrasts 
as compared with the times in which we live. 

The history of feudalism is a long and lurid 
one in many respects; but there is much of 
the domestic life of the times which points 
again and again to the fact that the overlord 
and his serfs were not in far different relations 
than the king and his vassals, or the landlord 
and tenant of to-day. 

Time was when a certain class of feudal bar- 
ons were robbers who lived in moated and tur- 
reted castles and raided on the peasants beneath 
their walls, or compelled them to bring to their 
castles the products of the fields ; but this was 
not so common in Normandy as elsewhere, and 
was more Germ_an than French. If one is to 
believe the chronicles of the feudal lords of 
Normandy and the northwest of France, there 
were a great many who promulgated a law 
much more charitable and fair than that in 



The Chateaux of Other Days 143 

force in many a " boss-ridden " community 
of to-day, in England or America. 

When the Franks became masters of Gaul 
they were quite content to let the old system 
of administration still obtain, and to confide 
to some count the governorship of the cities. He 
was usually a person who was subservient to 
the governor of the district, who, on his part, 
deferred to the heads of the province and the 
kingdom. 

The office was hereditary in most cases ; and, 
as the possessors of benefices which were with- 
held from the masses, they at first demanded 
an allegiance which, in later times, came to be 
greatly abridged. 

This was the beginning of the feudal system 
in France. It became complete when Charles 
the Bold consecrated the hereditary offices by the 
'' Capitulaire de Kiersi-sur-Oise," in 877. 

Each seigneur reigned in his fief over his 
serfs and vassals; and he in turn was subor- 
dinate to the count or duke, a rank higher up, 
the count himself regulating his movements 
and actions according to the will of the king. 

Under the feudal system the government of- 
fered great opportunities for irregularities, 
and the Roman law and rulings practically dis- 



144 Rambles in Normandy 



appeared from all but the ecclesiastical divi- 
sions. 

From the tenth to the fourteenth centuries 
France was divided into as many petty states 
as there were cantons or chateaux ; and, so far 
as intercommunication for purposes of com- 
merce were concerned, the only relations with 
the outside world were by the aid of great 
periodical fairs, such as were held at Beaucaire 
in Provence, the most celebrated of all, where 
the volume of trade was second only to that of 
Nijni-Novgorod in Russia. In the north this 
great fair found its counterparts at St. Denis, 
near Paris, and at Guibray, near Falaise in 
Normandy, which was next to Beaucaire in mag- 
nitude and importance. As to other outside 
communications, it developed largely along the 
line of raids and warlike incursions into neigh- 
bouring territory, as a result of jealousy and 
envy between the various seigneurs. The only 
other opportunities offered for the lower 
classes to mingle with the great world, beyond 
the feudal territory which claimed them for its 
own, was through the means of religious pil- 
grimages and the Crusades. 

This description to a great extent applies 
only to the chateaux of the powerful and 
wealthy seigneurs. 



The Chateaux of Other Days 145 

One then comes to the small nobility and 
their manor-houses, which were only less grand 
and luxurious in degree, not in kind. They were 
not fortified, save by an encircling wall, often 
of great height and thickness, which enclosed 
the whole domestic establishment and its home 
grounds. The manor-house of the sixteenth 
to eighteenth centuries took frequent root in 
Normandy, and was often very splendid in its 
appointments and proportions. 

The chateau of to-day, as one finds it in 
France, that is, the strictly modern edifice, 
which often bears the high-sounding name of 
chateau, is nothing more than a country-house 
of a small manufacturer or merchant; who, 
after thirty or forty years of a strenuous life, 
has married off his daughters and sons, and 
wishes to settle down in the country, and sur- 
round himself and his wife with the comforts 
of life and amid a glamour which, he fancies, 
somewhat approaches the splendour of the 
olden times. 

All this is commendable enough, of course, 
and it is much better that such a chatelain 
should build a brand-new red brick and green- 
and-yellow tiled pompous edifice, with a plas- 
ter cat on the ridge-pole, than that he should 



146 



Rambles in Normandy 




The Chateaux of Other Days 147 

buy and seek to remodel in new style a really 
good old-time edifice. 

With the inherent good taste undoubtedly 
possessed by the French, it is astonishing how 
ugly and bizarre their modern country-houses 
are, examples of which one often sees in Nor- 
mandy, along the Seine in the suburbs of Rouen, 
or in the neighbourhood of Dieppe or Trouville. 

In the blazonry of the arms of the nobility 
of France, the chateau has a supreme signifi- 
cance. Wherever it is seen incorporated in 
quarterings, whether with a single tower or 
three, it signifies that the chatelain thereof has 
rendered some signal service to the state of 
France in its royal days. 

Renaissance architecture in Normandy never 
achieved the magnitude that it did elsewhere 
in France, albeit certain notable structures yet 
exist to tell of the excellence of its compara- 
tively few examples. 

In the beginning Pierre Fain and Guillaume 
Senault built the archiepiscopal chateau at 
Gaillon, truly one of the wonders of the Renais- 
sance. Roland Leroux erected that highly 
ornate tomb of the Amboise cardinals in 
Rouen's cathedral, which, however, must be 
considered as merely a decorative, and not a 
constructive, work. In Caen and its environs 



148 Rambles in Normandy- 

Hector Sohier and a truly great unknown ex- 
ercised their genius between 1515 and 1545. 
At Gisors, three generations of architects by 
the name of Grappin, Jean I., Robert, and 
Jean II., proved their originality. 

This was the start made which culminated 
in the Hotel Bourgtheroulde and the Palais de 
Justice at Kouen. 

If the notable examples of early Renaissance 
in Normandy are not so numerous as elsewhere, 
they are certainly as beautiful, and reflect great 
credit upon their designers. 

Throughout the Caux, in Normandy, there 
are innumerable seventeenth and eighteenth 
century chateaux. They do not rise to the 
splendour of the great Renaissance edifices of 
the Loire, neither in point of grandeur, excel- 
lence of their artistic embellishment, nor in 
their historical reminiscence. They are not so 
very large; their architecture is in general a 
great fall from that of the Renaissance beauties 
of the preceding centuries, and only infre- 
quently were their associations intimately re- 
lated with the court. 

In spite of all this they exhibit many excel- 
lencies of detail, and, if simply built, are at least 
in much better taste and more appealing form 
than seventeenth-century architecture in gen- 



The Chateaux of Other Days 149 

eral. Many of them are of brick, and are of 
imposing aspect, when considered from the 
point of view of great country-houses alone. 
Frequently they are preceded by flower-gar- 
dens, which are in turn faced with greensward, 
in most delightful fashion. Great avenues of 
trees lead from the highroad, and generally 
the aspect is one of great comfort, if not of 
extravagant luxury. 

To-day, in many instances, these great do- 
mains are simply what are known as " high- 
farms," where the gentleman farmer who 
lives in the great house is in far better odour 
than the country squire in England, princi- 
pally from the reason that he often rents, sells, 
or works in shares such a part of his land as 
he does not work direct. This is an admirable 
system, which works wonderfully well through- 
out France, and should be studied by agricul- 
turists and economists elsewhere. 



CHAPTEE V. 

SOME TYPES OF NORMAN ARCHITECTURE 

The religious architecture of Normandy, 
from the tenth century onward, with regard 
to abbeys, cathedrals, and parish churches 
alike, was so abundant and splendid as to merit 
the naming of the style as Norman. 

The monkish builders of these early days, fol- 
lowing in the wake of the Conqueror, went 
throughout the length and breadth of Britain, 
sowing the seed that was to develop the Anglo- 
Norman variety which, truth to tell, differs 
in many instances not at ail from the parent 
style, seen at its best in such great edifices as 
the abbey churches of Jumieges and St. Georges 
de Boscherville, near Rouen. 

Normandy did not fall under the sway of the 
ogival or Gothic style, which had established 
itself in the He de France and Picardy, until 
quite a hundred years after it made its ap- 
pearance there (1150). 

The Norman-Romanesque, for such the local 

160 



Types of Norman Architecture 151 

style really was, was distinguished by a rela- 
tive strength and grandeur which ranked it 
far ahead of the pure Romanesque in its gen- 
eral interest. Its walls were of great thick- 
ness, and frequently of great height, and the 
demi-rond arcatures, often interlaced for deco- 
rative effect, were distinctly characteristic. 

The capitals were richly decorated, but sel- 
dom, if ever, in the style imported by the 
Romans from the Greek, and the geometrical, 
and zigzag, and lozenge decorations of the 
walls were, if bizarre, a departure from any- 
thing heretofore seen. Seldom, if ever, were 
plant-forms made use of, and statuary and ef- 
figies were, in the beginning, excessively rare. 

Frequently in the early Norman churches 
there was no ambulatory to the choir, and the 
easterly termination took the form of a flat 
chevet rather than that of the trefoil or fan- 
like arrangement which had to some extent 
obtained in the pure Romanesque type, and was 
undergoing a high development through the 
interpolation of the flying buttress or arc- 
boutant in the newly innovated Gothic of the 
He de France. 

The towers frequently numbered three, a 
great central tower and two smaller members 
flanking the fagade, or perhaps one of the tran- 



152 Rambles in Normandy 

septs. This great central tower gave rise to 
the lantern, which, for the purpose of lighting 
alone, proved a most desirable feature, and 
which, for long after the advent of Gothic, was 
retained in many Norman edifices in England. 

From the eleventh to the fourteenth cen- 
turies the distinct Norman style developed 
rapidly before it was entirely crowded out by 
the onrushing wave of Gothic. In its rudimen- 
tary forms it is found as early as the ninth 
century, and some details lingered even after 
the wholesale advent of Gothic, but practically 
its reign was but three hundred years. 

It was between 1180 and 1200 that Normandy 
received the first Gothic inspiration from the 
He de France. It resulted, at first, only in the 
interpolation of certain details of decoration, 
differing from the severer lines of the Nor- 
manesque; colonnets piled themselves up on 
columns, and instead of great cylinders and 
octagons, the ploughed and channelled Gothic 
piers slowly crept in. The windows gradually 
took on the pointed arch, and the tracery be- 
came more elaborate. Finally the triforium 
came, and balustrades, rosaces, and fleurons, 
and sculptured capitals, after the form of leaves 
and branches, completed the transition to pure 
Gothic forms. 



Tsrpes of Norman Architecture 153 



At the end of the third ovigal period, when 
the Gothic was losing its individuality of char- 
acter elsewhere in France, it was still flourish- 
ing in Normandy, and produced such marvel- 
lous examples as the south facade of Notre 
Dame de Louviers, the porch front at Alen§on, 
and St. Maclou at Rouen, to say nothing of the 
more elaborate fagade of Rouen's cathedral. 

In the Department of Manche one encounters 
frequent village churches with massive rec- 
tangular central towers after the manner of 
the large parish church in England, and once 
and again one comes upon a squared-off east 
end, such as is so greatly in vogue in England, 
and so infrequently seen in France, — the great 
parish church of Notre Dame at G-rand Andelys, 
on the Seine, being one of the most notable 
Norman examples. 

During the reign of Charles VII. and 
Louis XI. there was a great building revival 
wherein the principles of the Renaissance — 
brought from Italy, doubtless, by the nobles 
in the train of Charles VII. — flourished to the 
exclusion of any other style. 

Here in Normandy, as elsewhere in France, 
the Renaissance architecture came to its great- 
est glories with respect to domestic establish- 
ments and civic buildings, though once and 



154 Rambles in Normandy 

again there were manifestly good Renaissance 
details incorporated into the fabric of a great 
church, the most successful and notable example 
of such in Normandy being Hector Sohier's 
work at St. Pierre in Caen. 

The great chateau of the Archbishops of 
Rouen at Gaillon was a notable example of the 
other class, also the Hotel Bourgtheroulde at 
Rouen, and such smaller works as the tomb of 
the Cardinals of Amboise in Rouen's cathedral, 
and the Hotel d'Escoville at Caen. 

It is commonly thought that the beauties of 
the Renaissance in the lower Seine valley came 
as a result of the influence of the Cardinals of 
Amboise, who built the great chateau at Gail- 
lon. So far as religious edifices went, it was 
mostly with respect to interpolated details or 
restorations that the style took on any very 
great proportions, though the evidences that 
one sees in the cathedral at Evreux and in the 
great hybrid church at Gisors are by no means 
slight in bulk. 

The Towers of St. Eloi and St. Martin at 
Rouen are notable examples, and some parts 
of the parish church at Jumieges and the three 
chapels of the church of St. Jacques at Dieppe 
complete the list of really prominent religious 
Renaissance works in Normandy. 



PAET III. 



' CHAPTER I. 

THE SEINE VALLEY — PREAMBLE 

Three great gateways to Paris, from Eng- 
land's shores, lie through Normandy: via Cher- 
bourg and the Cotentin, via Dieppe and the 
Pays de Caux, and via Havre and the Seine 
valley, by the old Norman capital of Rouen. 

All three routes traverse a lovely country, 
but it is probable that the one by the great 
silent highway of the Seine is the most pictur- 
esque and historically interesting of its length 
in the whole world. 

, If the Seine be truly a great highway — the 
main street — of that elongated metropolis 
which extends from the He de la Cite, at Paris, 
to Havre, it is equally true that the roadways 
along either bank become its footpaths or side- 
walks, and that the parallel highroads, running 
along either side not far from the river-bank, 
are as busy with wheeled traffic as any other 
of the great national roads of France. 

^' The Seine," says Michelet, " is the most 

157 



158 Rambles in Normandy 

civilized and the most perfect of the rivers of 
France. It bears the spirit of Paris to Nor- 
mandy, to the sea, to England, and to far-away 
America. ' ' 

" The valley," say the geographers, " is 
monotonous up to Paris, varied to Rouen, 
and picturesque to Havre." Deep-sea naviga- 
tion is possible from its mouth to Paris, and 
above all as far as to Rouen, to which point 
great ships come and go with the same regular- 
ity that would obtain in a seacoast port. The 
tide of the ocean rises and falls as high up as 
Pont de I'Arche, where the first dam and lock 
are built. 

The affluents of the Seine below Paris are 
the Oise, its principal tributary, which has its 
birth in the distant Ardennes in Belgium; the 
Epte, a '' pure water " stream which flows 
through a charming valley, from Forges-les- 
Eaux to Giverny near Vernon; the Andelle, 
less important, but a wonderfully picturesque 
little river, which joins the parent stream near 
Pont de I'Arche. The Eure also comes to its 
confluence with the Seine at the same point, and 
the Risle, which rises near La Perche, after 
140 kilometres, finally reaches the sea through 
the Seine at Quillebeuf. 

The populous and charmingly situated towns 



The Seine Valley 159 

of the Seine valley, its wooded banks and for- 
ests, and the delightful roads along its banks, 
with here and there a chateau half -hidden by 
trees, to say nothing of the bosom of the stream 
itself, which forms a greatly travelled highway 
of another sort, all combine to present a con- 
tinually changing scene, which is not excelled 
in all France. 

There is a little village on the banks of the 
Seine below Vernon, where everything save the 
grand old ruin near by dates from the time, a 
dozen or more years ago, when a well-known 
American millionaire stopped there in his long, 
low-built steam-yacht, and requisitioned all the 
resources of the town's not very ample sup- 
plies in provender for himself and his '^ suite," 
as the native will tell you. The party did not 
remain long — over one night only, and for the 
petit dejeuner the next day — but they must 
have strewn their pathway with gold, for the 
memory of the event still lingers. 

Strange to say, this little old-world town has 
not become spoiled, and is not yet a popular 
resort, though now that an '^ artist colony " 
of a dozen or more young ladies descended 
upon it the last summer, in charge of a patri- 
archal old gentleman and his wife, its popular- 
ity appears to be on the increase. 



160 Rambles in Normandy 

The great highway of the Seine which con- 
nects the capital of France with the capital of 
Normandy forms, for the most part of its course 
below Paris, a broad, silvery band, which winds 
its way around numerous small islands until 
it comes well up to Rouen, when for fifty or 
more kilometres — as marked by the broad, 
white, and plainly visible stones along its banks 
— it flows through deep-cut cliffs of chalk 
crowned with greensward. 

Below Rouen, after La Bouille is passed, the 
banks flatten out, until at Caudebec they take 
on quite a low-country aspect, from whence 
the Seine makes its way to the sea through 
the shifting sand-bars at its mouth. 

For forty kilometres above Havre the estu- 
ary is a broad, lagoon-like expanse which looks 
little enough like a channel to the sea, though 
the country round about is not wholly flat, at 
least not in the distance. 

Havre many travellers know as a port of 
embarkation or debarkation for the great At- 
lantic liners under the subsidy of the French 
government. Trouville, to the westward from 
Havre, across this broad bay of the Seine, is 
a genuine resort of rank and fashion, not dull, 
to be sure, but as stale and unprofitable a place 
in which to linger as one can well imagine. 



The Seine Valley 161 

It is the abode of the fashionable world and 
of millionaires who are unable to take their 
pleasures except to the accompaniment of de- 
tails which are not even luxuries to many 
others, but which to them are necessities of 
prime importance. 

Etretat, practically equidistant eastward, 
offers much the same attractions, with this dif- 
ference: it has, or had a half -century ago, 
a great vogue among artists. Its sea and sky 
and chalk cliffs are still there, all, it would 
seem, in a more superlative degree than else- 
where along the coast, but casinos, de luxe 
hotels, and " five o 'clocks " have eliminated 
all the idyllic foreground, or at least thrust it 
paradoxically into the distance. 

There are a dozen or more similar seashore 
resorts in the immediate neighbourhood, but 
when one turns the prow of his motor-boat up- 
stream, or starts his automobile on the road 
which follows either bank of the Seine for the 
greater part of the distance from sea to source, 
he enters immediately upon associations of his- 
tory and romance that are linked with an un- 
breakable silvery thread, which never allows 
one to forget or ignore the fact of its presence 
or the part it has played in the past. 

Eastward lies the province of Caux, of the 



162 Rambles in Normandy 

ancient peoples known as the Caletes, while 
westward, and onward through the valley of 
the Eure, the chief tributary of the Seine on 
the left bank below Paris, is the real Nor- 
mandy, whose junction with the Isle of France 

— the ancient domain of the third race of kings 

— and the fertile plain of La Beauce is marked 
by the village of Houdan. 

It was Napoleon, as first consul, who said 
that in time to come, Havre, Eouen, and Paris 
would be one and the same city, and the Seine 
would be the grand highway. 

There is generally to be found lying at the 
Quai de la Hotel de Ville, at Paris, a dumpy- 
looking little steamboat, with stubby masts 
and a collapsible funnel, which, when all is in 
order and shipshape, has quite the look of a 
deep-sea craft. In a way it performs much the 
same functions, for the passage of some twenty 
hours from Tower Bridge on London's river 
to the entrance to the Seine at Havre is more 
often than not of a boisterousness quite the 
equal of the far-away briny deep itself. 

Writing a hundred years after the great con- 
sul passed his observations on the great high- 
way of the Seine, one realizes still more that 
its entire course, from Paris to Havre, in no 
small way resembles a great business thorough- 



The Seine Valley 163 

fare, with its marts of trade on either hand, 
its green open places, its populous centres, its 
more bare and less pretentious areas, and its 
cross-roads represented by the inflowing 
streams, which empty into it from all direc- 
tions. 

In addition, the progress of the ages has 
multiplied the earth-roads along its banks, and 
the boats upon its bosom, and the iron rails 
which connect it with the uttermost corners of 
the land, bind and protect its permanent value 
as a great highway of trade. 

One other aspect to-day, of which the ma- . 
jority of English-speaking folk know but little, 
is that the river is greatly given over, on cer- 
tain occasions and on all fete-days, to sports. 

The oarsman has come in the last half-cen- 
tury in great numbers, and in all the large 
centres on the banks of the Seine he is found, 
as often as occasion permits, in his racing boat, 
or shell, a name he has adopted from the Eng- 
lish vocabulary. He may not go about his sport 
as scientifically as his American or English 
brother, but he is quite as enthusiastic. 

To-day, also, the Seine is the true home of 
the automobile-boat. As an innovation of the 
times it has had some success elsewhere, but 
nowhere has the practice of the sport been 



164 Rambles in Normandy 

achieved with the success that it has in that 
broad, though sinuous stretch of water between 
the islands below Paris. 

Following again on the lines of Napoleon's 
words, one appreciates that, if Havre, Paris, 
and Rouen. have not yet become one, Rouen 
and Havre have come very near to it, for be- 
tween the principal city of Normandy and the 
seaport city on La Manche — as the French 
prefer to call the English Channel — are a 
succession of villages and towns, one scarcely 
out of sight of the other, all swarming with 
industry and life, from the artists who throng 
Caudebec in summer to the peasants who, on a 
fete-day, crowd into the nearest centre of pop- 
ulation to stare at townfolk and drink a par- 
ticularly vile brand of the native cognac — 
Calvados — known in parts of America as ' ' ap- 
plejack " or hard cider. 

As a patriotic and observing Frenchman 
from the Midi told the writer : * ' Nowhere else 
in France may one see so grand a succession 
of charms and beauties, nowhere receive so live 
and varied impressions — the splendours of the 
arts of other days surrounded by the wonders 
of modern activities — as here in this beauti- 
ful stretch of the Seine through Normandy." 



The Seine Valley 165 



This is not fulsome praise, but enthusiasm 
merely, bred of intimate acquaintance. 

One dreams of the time when Paris was but 
a tiny bourg : then Kouen was already a great 
city, having all the prerogatives of a capital. 
Indeed, capital she was, in effect, under the 
Eomans, who made their way along the Seine 
and established their country along the banks 
of the majestic river. 

On a certain occasion it was a great ques- 
tion with the author of this book as to whether 
a journey through the Seine valley in Nor- 
mandy should be made by means of the novel 
and speedy motor-boat, or some other small 
water-craft, or by the better known motor-car. 

A covered wagon, too, was thought of, with 
two small horses and a gipsy driver, but the 
thing had been done before, and it was not 
wholly with equanimity that we contemplated 
jolting over the many miles of the rough streets 
for which French towns are noted. 

For more reasons than one the motor-boat 
would not do. So the decision ultimately came 
to the land automobile. 

This offered great possibilities for explora- 
tion, in a well-known land, to be sure, but as 
an enthusiastic automobilist once said, it was 
vastly more satisfactory to him to discover a 



166 Rambles in Normandy 

new and picturesque route from some Channel 
port to the south of France, than it would be 
to cleave a new path through trackless Africa. 

The towns and places of historic interest or 
romantic beauty, if not of the river itself, were 
on its banks or near them, and were properly 
enough always considered in connection with 
the Seine. 

The itinerary of the Seine occupied the whole 
of one long, bright summer, and when one adds 
to this the numerous excursions out of the 
Seine valley proper into*those of its watershed, 
— up the Eure to Anet, the Ept to Gisors, or 
the Andelle to Lyons-le-Foret or beyond, — one 
rounds off a considerable number of miles or 
kilometres to one's credit, besides accomplish- 
ing much more than could possibly be achieved 
were the journey attempted by boat. 

We progressed beautifully for the greater 
part of the journey. Occasionally, off the 
beaten track — while trying to discover that 
new route across France, or rather across Nor- 
mandy from one river valley to another — we 
came upon a hill too stiff for us to surmount 
at the top speed. There is one in the Foret du 
Rouvray near Grand Couronne, and another 
at La Thuit near Les Andelys; but in France 
such ungraded hills are few and far between. 



The Seine Valley 167 

Even the dreaded Cote de Gaillon, of hill- 
climbing fame, paled before our machine, and 
we took it flying at twenty kilometres an hour. 

Only one thing could have made our jour- 
ney more delightful, — and that unfortunately 
was not possible, — the possession of a sort of 
amphibious automobile which, when occasion 
required, would take to water for a space, — we 
did take to water on one occasion, but the cir- 
cumstance is too reminiscent of misery to re- 
count here, — or to go one better, some sort of 
a machine constructed by the ingenuity of man 
which should travel by land, by water, or 
through the air; then bad stretches of pave 
would truly be eliminated and all hills levelled. 
But this would indeed be in the millennium, and 
this book deals only with facts. 

One enters the Seine from the sea at Havre 
by rounding a veritable graveyard of rocks. 
When we entered Havre on this occasion — the 
artist, the automobile, and the author, it was 
a dull, misty morning in May, and the hour, 

5 A. M. 

The cross-channel boat progressed slowly 
through the basin to its dock, swung its length 
as slowly around, and finally tied up with its 
deck some eight feet below the level of the wharf 
pavement. 



168 Rambles in Normandy 

The process of disembarking an automobile 
under these conditions was complicated. With 
true British conservatism of tradition, the cap- 
tain, his mate, quartermaster, and crew of 
engineers and stokers declared that the auto- 
mobile could not be landed " until the tide 
served, ' ' — and it was still going down. 

Meantime the patron of the local garage, 
having been advised of our coming, was on the 
wharf thoroughly equipped to receive us. Ac- 
companying this thoughtful individual was a 
rubicund, genial-looking gentleman who after- 
ward proved to be the representative of the 
Departement des Mines, who had come from 
Rouen sometime during the still hours of the 
night, to put us through our paces. Clambering 
the steeply pitched gangplank, the author — 
who in this case was also the chauffeur — inter- 
viewed the before-mentioned gentlemen, think- 
ing meanwhile that it was more or less 
astonishing that they should have put in an 
appearance at such an early hour. 

It was suggested that a half-dozen stalwart 
Frenchmen could lift the automobile and all 
its twelve hundredweight on their shoulders. 
It seemed incredible, but it was worth trying — 
otherwise, four hours delay. It was tried, to 
the contempt of the crew of the steamer, and to 



The Seine Valley 169 



their chagrin the feat was accomplished at a 
cost of three francs, which was immediately ex- 
pended in calvados at the little cabaret op- 
posite. 

With the aid of the Automobile Club mem- 
bership card, the custom-house was passed 
without difficulty or delay. The tanks were 
filled with naphtha, water, and oil, and forth- 
with the test was made — before the rubicund 
gentleman from Rouen — upon the outcome of 
which our certificate of fitness was to be granted 
or refused. 

There was nothing formidable about the proc- 
ess, though we came to grief, or rather to a 
standstill,. in the midst of a flock of sheep just 
around, the corner, and, in returning, stopped 
only within the proverbial hair's breadth of 
a flock of geese who had flutteringly escaped 
from a near-by market stall. 

All this seemed to demonstrate a high and 
efficient degree of ability, and " un certificat 
de capacite pour la conduite des voitures auto- 
mobiles a petrole " was given us forthwith, and 
long before the hour of high water we were in 
full cry at the French legal limit for traversing 
the streets and boulevards of a large and pop- 
ulous city such as Havre. 

The bad effects of the exceedingly bad coffee, 



170 Rambles in Normandy 

and equally unpalatable '' cottage loaf," pur- 
veyed to us at that early hour on board ship, 
had now been dissipated in air, and another 
coffee and rolls taken at a cafe on the tree- 
shaded Place Gambetta proved to be so ap- 
petizing that we lingered on for dejeuner. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SEINE BELOW EOUEN 

Havre is one of those neglected tourist 
points through which travellers frantically 
rush en route to — well, almost anywhere you 
like, Paris, Switzerland, or the Riviera. It is, 
accordingly, not so well known as it might 
otherwise be, a distinction it shares with 
Boulogne and Calais. Havre is a typical ex- 
ample of the " large modern city." It has not 
the abounding wealth of historical association 
of Rouen. It is a city of new houses and new 
streets, laid out after the geometric manner 
in favour in America. But if the monuments 
of the past are rare, Havre is none the less an 
attractive and gay city, and the inhabitants 
are justly proud of their Rue de Paris and their 
Place Gambetta, which, truly, would dignify the 
capital itself. But one 's admiration never loses 
the key-note. The chief joy of Havre is its 
gigantic port, which controls the fifth part of 

the commerce of France. 

171 



172 Rambles in Normandy 

The great strength and value of the port of 
Havre is that, as it stands to-day, it is modern. 

When Napoleon, in his prophetic words, 
linked the city with Paris and Eouen, it had 
but twenty thousand souls. Fifty years later 
it had risen to thirty thousand, and more re- 
cently, since the efforts of the engineers Col- 
bert and Vauban and the solicitations of states- 
men have provided it with a grand port of 
entry, it maintains a steadily rising population 
above 130,000 souls, all practically dependent 
upon the commerce of the city for their support. 
As French cities go, this is an astonishing 
percentage of growth. 

Mounting the heights of Ingouville, one sees 
unrolled at his feet, in an imposing panorama, 
the city of Havre to its uttermost confines, its 
port, its ten docks, its wharfs, its suburbs, the 
immense estuary of the Seine, Cape de la Heve, 
and the sea, with the white and brown sails of 
the ships and fishing-boats, and the parti-col- 
oured funnels and hulls of big steamers. In 
thirty years the movement of ships in and out 
of the port has swelled from 2,600,000 tons to 
more than six million. Of passengers by sea, 
long voyages and short ones taken together, 
Havre, within a single year, has embarked and 
disembarked a total of 550,000 persons. Think 



The Seine below Rouen 



178 



of this, ye who suppose France an effete and 
untravelled nation ; and this is only the normal 
business of a city of 130,000 inhabitants. 

The expense of all this vast equipment was of 
course considerable. It may convey nothing 
to many passers-by to know that Havre, in the 
last ten years, has spent some forty-one millions 




Cape de la Heve 

of francs on these improvements, whilst the 
Chamber of Commerce has been directly respon- 
sible for perhaps twenty-five millions more, all 
of which ought to be a sufficiently tangible and 
plausible endorsement that the work is being 
well done. When the work is complete the 
port of Havre will rival the greatest in the 
world in magnitude and convenience. The his- 
torical remains of Havre may not equal those 



174 Rambles in Normandy 

of many other of the important cities of France, 
and the Rue de Paris and the cafe-bordered 
Place Gambetta may be poor substitutes, but, 
nevertheless, Havre's past is historic, though 
the ancient Havre de Grace has disappeared 
entirely. 

It was here, in 1514, that Leroy, the com- 
mandant of Honfleur, carried out the orders 
of Fran§ois I. to " excavate and construct a 
port suitable and convenient to receive, provide 
for, and equip large ships, not only of our own 
kingdom, but of our allies." From this may 
be said to have grown the present great 
port. The name of the city itself grew out 
of a chapel founded a few years before by 
Louis XII. (1509). 

Primarily Frangois I. may have desired to 
make it a great home-port, but no less did he 
have in mind that here was a most suitable 
place to assemble his fleet, which some day he 
would put forth against England. 

In 1545 he actually did get together nearly 
two hundred ships of all sorts and conditions 
of fighting capacity for a descent upon England 
at the Isle of Wight. The expedition was re- 
pulsed, and in return, in a few years' time 
(1562), the port was occupied by an English 
garrison. 



The Seine below Rouen 175 

Henri IV., the great Cardinal Richelieu, and 
Colbert were responsible in no small measure 
for the great prosperity and strength which 
soon settled down upon the city, though by the 
end of the seventeenth century it dawned upon 
the English that here, at their very doors, was 
a maritime rival which looked as though it 
were to outdistance all others in the north of 
Europe. 

As a precautionary measure, presumably, the 
English fleet made an attack upon the port, but 
they in their turn met as fierce a repulse as did 
the French in England under Frangois I. Ad- 
miral Sir Sidney Smith, in a vain attempt to 
capture a French vessel close under the guns 
of the fortress, was captured and held a pris- 
oner by the French in the old citadel built by 
Charles IX. It was here, too, by the way, that 
the crafty Mazarin imprisoned the Princes of 
Conde, Conti, and the Due de Longueville. It 
is recorded, in the annals of the city, that in 
the year 1535 the greater part of the newer 
portions were swept away and large numbers 
of persons drowned, by an extraordinary tidal 
wave — the ancestor, perhaps, of those which 
periodically ascend the Seine, to the joy of 
the tourist and the incidental profit of the inn- 
keepers at Caudebec. 



176 Rambles in Normandy- 

Large numbers of persons were drowned, 
mostly farmers who had gathered in the town 
" pour la p.opuler," as the chronicle gives it. 
In general, matters of artistic and archaeo- 
logical interest are wanting in this city of com- 
mercialism, of great hotels, and the hum and 
echo of the workaday world. 

The Art Museum, to be sure, has examples 
of the masterpieces of Poussin and Carrache, 
and even a Rubens, a Murillo, and a Van Dyek, 
but, on the other hand, the public monuments 
of the city are not artistic. 

Pilgrims to literary shrines should remember 
that Havre was the birthplace of Bernardin 
St. Pierre, whose '' Paul and Virginia " is 
as immortal to the Frenchman as " Locksley 
Hall " to an Englishman. St. Pierre's statue, 
by David d 'Angers, as well as another of 
Casimir Delavigne, stands before the Art Mu- 
seum. Another monument on the cliff above 
the city, to Lefevre Desnouettes, once and 
again comes into view as one strolls about. 
It is one of the most atrocious monuments 
ever erected to the memory of man. 

Havre is splendid and elegant in its way, 
but it is not picturesque, except possibly in the 
low streets near the wharfs, frequented by sail- 
ors, which have a cosmopolitanism reminiscent 



The Seine below Rouen 177 

of Marseilles, itself the most thoroughly cosmo- 
politan of all the ports of the world. 

Here are strange, perhaps dangerous, caba- 
rets, cafes-concerts, and questionable amuse- 
ments of all sorts, where strange and uncouth 
customs shoulder each other in a veritable 
babel of tongues ; mulattos from the Caribbean 
Sea, Maltese, Greeks, Lascars, Chinamen, and 
above all Portuguese, with an occasional Eng- 
lish or American sailor down on his luck, — all 
are here. Calvados, and dirks, and sharp 
knives all play their part, and clearly the quay- 
side of Havre is no place after dark. 

From the heights of Ingouville, of Cape de la 
Heve, or of Graville, the illuminated effect of 
the city at night is wonderfully soft, pictur- 
esque, and beautiful, the houses of all ranks 
twinkling with lights, the streets and wharves 
Juminous with orbs of electricity and the reds, 
greens, and whites of the semaphore, the ships 
beyond jQashing out to each other signals and 
commands inexplicable to a landsman, — all 
blend wonderfully into what the great Whistler 
would have called a nocturne. 

Once and again one will hear the infinitely 
sad wail of a siren whistle on some vessel 
outward or inward bound, which will suggest 



178 Rambles in Normandy 

the mutability of all things, and the strain and 
stress under which we live. 

But on the whole, a midnight reverie on the 
heights above the old Havre de Grace should 
awaken as pleasant emotions as the same view 
in broad day — perhaps more so. 

The Seine, at its mouth, has as many whims 
as a stricken hare. Its channel turns about on 
itself in truly bewildering fashion, and what 
was this year deep water and a fairway, next 
year becomes, perhaps, dry land, or at least 
damp sand or swamp. In 1886 the channel 
followed somewhat the shore of the north bank 
from Tancarville to the sea, but by 1889 it had 
shifted to the south bank, and two years later 
seemed likely to engulf the ancient town of Hon- 
fleur, which was prosperous in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, before Havre was even thought of. In- 
deed its harbour is now so silted up that most 
of its commercial prosperity, though not its 
picturesqueness, has disappeared. 

It is written in the books of travellers with 
tourist tickets that they may journey Paris- 
ward from Havre by Rouen either by boat or 
rail during the summer months. Many avail 
themselves of the alternative water route, and 
many do not. Those who do not miss a unique 
trip which is well worth the extra hours en 



The Seine below Rouen 179 

route, though there is no very grand scenery 
until one comes well up with suburban Rouen, 
at, say, Molineux-La Bouille, 

From the harbour at Havre runs the Tan- 
carville Canal, which is a smooth, straight 
waterway which enables craft proceeding up 
river to avoid the shifting sands of the estuary 
and, at certain seasons of the year, to escape 
the tidal wave or mascaret. 

As a waterway of the rank of the deep-sea 
canals of Holland, the Tancarville Canal looks, 
at first glance, wofuUy inejEficient ; but its almost 
constant use precludes any doubt as to its 
value. 

It runs straight as the crow flies from Havre 
to Harfleur, and thence to Tancarville itself, 
where it joins the Seine, through the first lock, 
at the twenty-third kilometre mark from Havre. 

The section of the Seine between Havre and 
Rouen forms what is known officially as the 
*' Ninth Section," though the application is 
properly given as one descends the stream, 
the section above, from Rouen to the mouth 
of the Oise, being known as the '' Eighth Sec- 
tion. ' ' 

From the five hundred and sixty-third kilo- 
metre mark, at Havre, counting from Mery in 



180 Rambles in Normandy 

the Department of the Aube, near Troyes, to 
Rouen, is 125 kilometres. 

Up to the latter point, the rules of navigation 
as known upon the deep seas are applicable, 
and those which apply to the navigation of 
rivers, canals, lakes, and ponds of fresh water 
cease to apply. 

The law on this subject is very explicit, and 
was promulgated in 1890, because of the lack 
of uniformity existing in the laws relating to 
navigation on French waterways. On the Seine 
the actual line of delimitation is at the curious, 
though not ungainly. Bridge du Transbordeur 
at Eouen. 

The entire ninth section of the Seine is offi- 
cially recognized as navigable for the whole 
of its 338 kilometres from Havre to the con- 
fluence of the Oise, its most important tributary 
below Paris. 

Below Paris freight is carried largely by 
towboats. But there are some steam-carriers 
of curious design and build with a pair of twin 
stern-wheels revolving like a squirrel-cage, the 
pilot or helmsman perched upon a little plat- 
form between. These quaint craft carry from 
150 to 280 tons of package freight, the peniches 
from 200 to 400 tons, and the barges perhaps 
as much as 650 tons. Recent improvements 



The Seine below Rouen 181 

in dredging have given a depth of water which 
has of late allowed the development and use of 
a new type of steamer. 

The steam-coasters carry a maximum of 750 
tons at sea, from Havre to St. Brieuc or Mor- 
laix, or to Dunkerque, and five hundred tons in 
the river. 

Another sort of large barge has a carrying 
capacity of one thousand tons, on a signifi- 




Towhoats on the Seine 

cantly shallow draught, and finally, there are 
the steam-coasters, already mentioned, making 
the service between Paris and London, which 
are in reality ocean-going steamers, in spite 
of their collapsible masts and funnels. 

Opposite Havre and connected by frequent 
boat journeys during the day is the most an- 
cient port of Honfleur. One frequently enough 
reaches it via Havre, but, properly speaking, 
it belongs to that little group of coastwise cities 



182 Rambles in Normandy 

and towns which stretches from the mouth of 
the Seine to the Cotentin. 

Just above Havre on the Seine is the florid 
spire of the noble church of Harfleur, — not to 
be confounded with the now dormant port of 
Honfleur on the opposite bank, — one of the 
most imposingly placed spires in Normandy, 
if not in France. 

Harfleur was besieged in 1415 by Henry V. 
of England, and fell after forty days, when 
sixteen hundred families were transported to 
England, '* without having any belongings ex- 
cept the clothes they stood in and five sols 
each. ' ' 

The superb spire of St. Martin's Church dates 
from the fifteenth century and dominates the 
fifteenth and sixteenth-century houses at its 
base quite like an angel guardian. The six- 
teenth-century chateau of the Comte de La- 
bedoyere is an imposing edifice in the style 
of Louis XIII. 

To-day this old seaport of Harfleur — which, 
like Honfleur across the estuary, has lost its 
former pride and glory — is scarcely more than 
a suburb of Havre, a half-dozen kilometres dis- 
tant. 

On an isolated cliff on the Seine above Har- 
fleur, one sees the two great towers of the 



The Seine below Eouen 183 

Chateau of Tancarville.* This fortress-chateau 
was first built in the eleventh or twelfth cen- 
tury, on the plan of a triangle, having at each 
of its angles a great tower, and, on the inter- 
vening walls on each side, intermediate towers 
to the number of seven. 

Within the walls was the castle of the sei- 
gneurs of Tancarville, of which more or less 
fragmentary ruins still remain. 

On the terrace masking the ruins is the new 
chateau, a cold, modern edifice which no 
one could possibly be in love with, but for the 
admirably imposing outlook from its windows. 

Lillebonne, on the Seine midway between 
Rouen and Havre, is known to have the remains 
of one of the most northerly — if not the most 
northerly — Roman amphitheatre extant. 

Supposedly this little Seine-side town was 
named for the great Roman and bore the name 
Juliabona, from which was derived its present 
nomenclature. 

Numerous Roman antiques have been dis- 
covered here from time to time, — most of which 
are to be seen in the museum at Rouen, — which 
marks it as having been a city of importance, 
indeed only such ever had a great open-air 
theatre such as is indicated by the remains 
visible at Lillebonne to-day. 



184 Rambles in Normandy 

Lillebonne was also the capital of the Prov- 
ince of Caux, but fell into decadence after the 
invasions. The Norman William resuscitated 
the place and made it a strong fortification. Re- 
mains of his chateau, also restored in the thir- 
teenth century by the Comtes d'Harcourt, who 
in turn possessed the town, are yet to be seen. 
For the most part the edifice is in fragments, 
but enough remains of the old walls, — now 
forming a terrace, — a crenelated low tower, 
a hexagonal tower, and a cylindrical donjon 
— with walls a dozen feet in thickness — to sug- 
gest that the town's former importance under 
the Norman dukes was quite the equal of that 
of its Roman days. 

Lillebonne has also a most interesting medi- 
aeval church, dating from the fourteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. 

At last one reaches Caudebec-en-Caux, a pic- 
turesque old town, with a most magnificent 
parish church and a little tree-bordered quay 
which is charming. But in season all is spoiled 
by the general attitude of lying in wait for un- 
wary trippers and excursionists from London, 
which seems to have set its mark upon the 
inhabitants of this otherwise delightful stop- 
ping-place. 

That great wonder of nature, the mascaret, 




I 



The Seine below Rouen 185 

is the great drawing-card of Caudebec, even 
more than the artistic pretensions of its flam- 
boyant fifteenth-century church, with its won- 
derful spire, the old houses of the town, its 
famous market, and the quaint costumes of 
the Cauchoise women. 

The great wave comes suddenly, as if the 
flood-gates were let loose, to a height of two 
or three metres above the normal surface of 
the water, and during May or June, when the 
mascaret is at its best, it is the chief magnet 
of attraction to scores of travellers who have 
timed their itineraries so as to witness this 
freak of nature. 

The market-place of Caudebec is most de- 
lightfully situated, extending from the base of 
the old church to the tree-bordered quays, where 
also are the town's two chief hotels, with de- 
lightful little balconies, on which one may dine 
and watch the throng below and the water- 
borne traffic of the Seine. 

The banks of the Seine itself at Caudebec 
begin to rise and narrow, and the generally 
flat lowland aspect takes on more of the nature 
of wooded hills, with an occasional chateau or 
church peeping out from among the trees. 

Next above Caudebec is one of the most cele- 
brated abbeys in the north of France, St. 



186 Rambles in Nonnandy 

Wandrille's. It keeps company, or rather its 
ruin does, with those other grand remains of 
Jumieges and St. Georges de Boscherville, all 
of which lie within a twenty-mile square plot 
of ground on the two peninsulas made by the 
windings of the Seine just north of Eouen. 

The cloister of St. Wandrille, which, in ruins, 
may yet be seen, was one of the most beautiful 
of the middle ages. 

The founder of the abbey, in 648, was St. 
Wandrille, a disciple of St. Columba and a 
member of one of the most distinguished 
families of Austrasia. St. Wandrille exercised 
the most important functions at the court of 
Pepin, but subsequently retired to the monas- 
tery of Montfaugon in Champagne, ultimately 
to come to Normandy, where he founded the 
monastery of Fontenelle, or St. Wandrille, as 
it afterward became known. 

In a little time the establishment came to 
a flourishing prosperity, with over three hun- 
dred monks. 

St. Wandrille evangelized the entire Province 
de Caux and sent out many colonies of monks 
to carry on the work. 

From the Abbey of Fontenelle came St. 
Lambert, Bishop of Lyons, St. Ansbart, the 
Bishop of Eouen, St. Grennade, and St. Agathon. 



The Seine below Rouen 187 

In all, forty personages coming from the abbey 
were subsequently honoured in the French cal- 
endar by the title of saint. 

The structure itself, splendid and magnificent, 
and its church, above all, was only to be com- 
pared to the gems of its era. 

Nothing, or nearly nothing, remains of all 
this splendour to-day ; some fragmentary piers 
and arches, or a bit of wall set shrine-like in 
the midst of the wooded valley on the right 
bank of the Seine, tell the story, but they tell 
it well. 

There is a record of an old benitier or holy- 
water font here which had engraven upon its 
rim the following admonition : 

'' He who takes the holy water without hav- 
ing immersed the hand, does a thing dishonest, 
and must demand a pardon from his God." 
■ It does not exist to-day, but the precept seems 
to be one which might find a useful place in 
twentieth-century churches. 

Just above St. Wandrille is Duclair, a mar- 
ket-town of mean enough pretensions as to 
population except on market-days. On those 
occasions its principal streets and tiny place 
are encumbered with many varieties of live 
stock, from sucking pigs to crowing hens. For 
an automobile to pass through its restricted 



188 Rambles in Normandy 

streets and not decapitate something (a fowl 
costs two francs, a duck five, and so on) would 
be a feat of skill indeed. 

The town has no great artistic attractions, 
though its church is a queer composition of 
Norman fourteenth-century and Eenaissance 
attributes. Beneath the steeple are also some 
ancient Gallo-Romain columns with sculptured 
capitals. 

In the peninsula lying to the south of Du- 
clair, where the river turns into one of those 
wonderful serpent-like bends, such as one used 
to see on the cashmere shawls of our grand- 
mothers, are the remains of the ancient Abbey 
of Jumieges. Its two sombre towers, square 
at the base, but dwindling to an octagon, en- 
flank an enormous shell, now dismantled and 
all but dismembered. 

Jumieges was the most ancient monastery 
in Normandy. It was founded in the seventh 
century by St. Philibert, and had at one time 
nine hundred monks. 

It endured for many centuries rich, power- 
ful, and renowned; its abbots were beatified 
and many of them made bishops and arch- 
bishops. The Dukes of Normandy and the Kings 
of England and of France had the right to 
lodge there when passing in its neighbourhood. 




Juniieoes 



The Seine below Rouen 189 

The abbey declined with the reformatory 
ideas which went abroad through the Calvinists, 
who pillaged it of its riches. 

Afterward a few monks were sheltered there, 
but these, too, were dispersed when the fabric 
finally suffered demolition during the Revolu- 
tion. 

The remains, with the fine surrounding gar- 
dens, are now the property of a Madame Lepel- 




Cointet, who herself inhabits one of the depend- 
encies of the ancient monastery. 

Lovers of French history will do well to recall 
the fact that Charles VII., and that paragon 
Agnes Sorel, frequently lodged here. It was 
at Jumieges, on the ninth of February, 1450, 
that the " gentille Agnes," the beautiful mis- 
tress of Charles VII., died, some say of poison. 
She had the good fortune to merit far more 
approbation than most of the royal mistresses 
of France, and whether one pauses before the 



190 Rambles in Normandy 

shrine of her birthplace at Fromenteau near 
Bourges, her tomb at Loches, or at Jumieges, 
their memories will unconsciously echo the fol- 
lowing lines : 

" Gentille Agnfes, plus de loz tu m Writes, 
Ta cause 6tant de France recouvrer, 
Que n'en pourrait dedans un cloistre ouvrer 
Close nonain, on bien d6vot hermite." 

The " gentille Agnes " had a manor-house 
in the neighbourhood, but died within the walls 
of the monastery itself in 1450, to the monks of 
which she bequeathed her heart. 

In the Art Museum is still to be seen the 
stone which originally covered this relic, as well 
as the stone tomb of Nicolas Leroux, the fifty- 
ninth abbe, one of the judges of Jeanne d'Arc. 

From the country round about are exported 
considerable quantities of early summer fruits 
and vegetables to England, the soil and the 
climate of the Seine country being particularly 
suitable to the early advancement of garden- 
crops. 

Before one finally draws up on Rouen and 
its down-river suburbs there is still another 
ecclesiastical monument, St. Georges de Bos- 
cherville, — the third great church of other 
times still remaining to tell its story. St. 



The Seine below Rouen 191 

Georges de Boscherville was more fortunate 
than Jumieges or St. Wandrille as to its en- 
during qualities. Its abbey church is to-day 
one of those marvels which one continually 
comes across in the out-of-the-way places of 
France; admirably preserved, of wonderfully 
excellent design, and immense in size — as com- 
pared with the functions which it performs to- 
day. It is one of the architectural wonders of 
a region distinctly prolific in treasures of the 
kind. Its strong, Norman-arched nave and 
walls, its chapter-house, its portal, in fact the 
whole structure, is of that long-lived Roman- 
esque-Norman variety of building which gave 
its name and style to the far-heralded Norman 
architecture. It is a monument to the genius 
of one man : its builder, Raoul de Tancarville, 
the chamberlain of William the Conqueror. 
He posed the crowning stone of the edifice in 
1066, the year of the Norman invasion of Eng- 
land, in the domain of Boscherville, of which 
he was governor. 

The abbey was first devoted to the canons 
regular of St. Augustin, but in 1114 it was oc- 
cupied by monks of the order of St. Benoit. 

St. Georges de Boscherville is a grand church 
edifice, with a chapter-house. It could easily 
hold five thousand people, whereas the present 



192 Rambles in Normandy 

population of the parish cannot be over a couple 
of hundred souls. 

It is commonly accredited as one of the best 
preserved examples of Norman religious archi- 
tecture extant. Over its doorway one may yet 
read this inscription to its founder. 



" A la pieuse munificence de Eaoul de Tancarville, 
grand chambellan de Guillaume II. le Couqu6rant, 
due de Normandie." 



Toward Eouen the Seine describes a triple 
bend, its contours enveloped with high, wooded 
plateaus, of which the Roumare, Londe, and 
Eouvray forests are most charming, and are 
to the Norman capital what Fontainebleau and 
Rambouillet are to Paris. 

Thickly set for many miles along the river- 
bank are villages and towns blending indus- 
trial and country pursuits in inextricable 
fashion, with here and there the luxurious villa 
of a wealthy manufacturer of Rouen peeping 
out from among the sheltering trees. 

The Seine, both above and below Rouen, 
makes a series of snakelike curves which encircle 
a half-dozen or more forest-grown peninsulas, 
which appeal particularly to one who, judging 
only from the appearance of the dunes of the 



The Seine below Rouen 193 



seacoast or the faintly outlined, tree-bordered 
roads which run tangently in various directions, 
had made up his mind that France is a barren, 
treeless land. 

Back of St. Sauveur, but within full sight of a 
person standing on the water-front at Eouen, 
are the oak-clad hills which form the forest of 
Rouvray. The next peninsula contains the 
forest of Londe; and, across the river, on the 
same side with Rouen itself, is the forest 
peninsula of Roumare, which has for a neigh- 
bour another thumblike neck of land, on which 
is the forest of Jumieges and the ruins of its 
ancient abbey. 

These taken together form the down-river 
environs of Rouen. The panorama along the 
banks of the Seine is a great treasure-house 
of natural beauties and historical relics. 

There is a great deal of smoke near Rouen, 
but the chimneys from which it belches forth 
are, nevertheless, picturesque. Farther down 
the river are the busy manufacturing and ship- 
building towns of Petit and Grand Quevilly; 
while on the Rouen side at this point are a 
series of picturesque hamlets along the river- 
side road which extends for a score of miles 
around the flank of the peninsula to Duclair. 

The foliage along the river-banks here, ex- 



194 Rambles in Normandy 

cept for the high-grown forests behind, is much 
the same as elsewhere, — slim, light larches, 
with here and there a clump of low-lying wil- 
lows and an undergrowth which runs to the 
water's edge. 

At Bouille-Molineux, the terminus of the 
ferry-boats from Eouen, is the famous monu- 
ment to the French combatants who perished 
here in 1871 ; which reminds one of the bronze 
and marble effigies with which the Germans 
have decorated the Rhine, Here also is the 
suggestively named Maison Brulee, famed for 
its fried eels, which are really a delicacy as they 
are served in France. 

The chief and only attraction of Petit Cou- 
ronne is the home of Corneille, surely a literary 
shrine of the first rank, although frequently 
neglected by the tourist birds of passage who 
flock to the continent of Europe in summer. 
Why this should be so is inexplicable. It is 
scarce five miles from the Norman capital, and 
a plea is here made to hero-worshippers and 
lovers of literary landmarks for a better ac- 
quaintance. 

The house dates from 1554, and was bought 
by the poet's father in 1608, from whom Pierre 
inherited it in 1639. Two years after the poet's 
death, in 1686, it was sold for 5,100 livres. The 



The Seine below Rouen 195 

Department of the Lower Seine bought it in 
1874 and transformed it into the Musee Cor- 
neillen, an art museum devoted to Corneille. 

Within are many personal relics of the poet 
and a vast collection of contemporary works 
of art. Among the chief are a bust of Cor- 
neille after that in the Comedie-Frangaise, some 
Louis XIII. chairs, portraits of the poet by 
Lebrun and Mignard, an engraving of Meis- 
sonier's portrait retouched by himself, a statue 
by David d 'Angers, and a manuscript letter 
bearing the signature '' P. Corneille." 

The construction of the building is ingenious 
and peculiar. It is of the old timbered style, 
now grown so scarce, with an elaborately 
roofed garret. 

The care with which such monuments are 
preserved is expressive of the fondness of the 
French for the memories of their great men; 
and, though it was wholly through local pride 
that the Musee Corneillen was established, it 
may well be considered a monument of national 
interest. 

Petit Quevilly has a few memorials of other 
days which are perhaps of interest to the 
archaeologist, if not to the general tourist: a 
chapel dedicated to St. Julien dating from the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the somewhat 



196 Rambles in Normandy 

scanty fragments of a hospital for lepers, 
founded in 1183 by Henry II. of England, some 
ruins of an ancient cloister, and an old Car- 
thusian convent of the seventeenth century, 
which has since been turned into a factory. 

Grand Quevilly still preserves the Chateau 
of Montmorency, built in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, when ornamental domestic architecture 
fell far below the height it had reached two cen- 
turies before. The chateau is beautifully sit- 
uated in the midst of a fine park. Here, too, 
is the farm of Grand Aulnay, belonging to the 
hospital at Rouen, a gift to the old foundation 
by Eichard Coeur de Lion in 1197. 

By this time the traveller up the Seine is well 
in sight and sound of Rouen's chimney-stacks, 
and the roaring traffic of its quays and streets. 

At Croisset, on the banks of the Seine three 
kilometres below Rouen, is a literary shrine 
which is little known. It is the home of Gus- 
tave Flaubert. Maupassant, De Goncourt, Dau- 
det, and Zola frequently met there for lunch- 
eon with the author of " Madame Bovary." 

When Flaubert died the house was for a long 
time deserted ; but a committee has recently been 
formed to preserve its associations, as was done 
for the home of Corneille at Grand Couronne, 
on the opposite bank of the river. 



The Seine below Rouen 197 

" Truly a fair estate, here beside this great 
river up and down which the masts of ships 
pass before one, ..." wrote Edmond de Gon- 
court in 1830. 

It was an appropriate home for a man of 
letters ; for in the eighteenth century it housed 
a colony of Benedictines, and is destined to 
become one of those haunts of literary people, 
of which there are so many throughout France. 
All who go to Rouen should make a pilgrimage 
to the home of Flaubert. 

No one who knows Rouen, the city of the 
Northmen, the Conqueror, and of Jeanne d 'Arc, 
will for a moment contest its right to be ranked 
as one of the liveliest, if not one of the biggest 
seaports of the world. One marvels at the size 
and number of deep-sea ships at its wharfs. 
Here you will see colliers from Sunderland and 
Wales, of great depth and beam; lumber ships 
from Norway, of equally sturdy girth ; and oc- 
casionally a full-rigged ship which has been 
towed up from Havre, where perhaps it has un- 
loaded a part of its South Sea cargo. Across 
the Pont Corneille, just off the quay which sep- 
arates the Grand Cotirs from the river, is the 
harbour of the great canal-boats which carry 
coal from Newcastle and Sunderland to Paris 
and the upper Seine, the Eure, and their 



198 Rambles in Normandy 

branches, between the city of great churches 
and the metropolis of Paris. They are huge 
craft, built as if they were expected to cross 
the ocean. There are none as large as they, 
except their sister ships of Holland which ply 
on the lower reaches of the Maas and Neder 
Rijn or the great trunk-line canals. All other 
barges, canal-boats, and lighters pale before 
the splendour and magnitude of these great 
coal-carrying craft, which form a fleet of a 
hundred or more at a time tied up in their har- 
bour in Rouen. 

Besides these, there are the local bateaux 
mouches, which ply up and down to near-by sub- 
urbs, much as they do in Paris, as well as a 
more splendid craft which carries passengers 
on alternate days from Rouen to Havre. Last, 
but not least, the spider-like Pont Transhordeur 
is visible from every direction as evidence of 
progress. 

Rouen, moreover, is about the only city of 
France which has its water-front flanked by 
first-class cafes. From the Pont Corneille, 
down-stream to the Po7it Transhordeur, is one 
long succession of wicker chairs and marble- 
topped tables, where on a summer's afternoon 
there is as much gaiety and splendour of life 



The Seine below Rouen 



199 



to be seen as on the most crowded of the boule- 
vards of Paris. 




A Rouen Cafi 



There is this distinction, however. Instead of 
the tables being crowded with houlevardiers and 
their female companions of more or less vulgar 



200 Rambles in Normandy 

raiment, they are occupied by substantial 
merchants and men of affairs, officers of the 
army, and, on Sundays and holidays, by many 
of their families, to say nothing of the numer- 
ous tourists both English and American. 

All of this is in strong contrast to the worka- 
day aspect of the ships which lie along the 
wharfs, and the long trucks and drays of wine- 
casks which form their cargo. 

The Douane, the Bourse, the Grande Poste, 
and the Cours Boieldieu, with its most excel- 
lent bronze statue of the composer, all combine 
to give an air of great prosperity to all Rouen. 

The tourist in general, as well as the anti- 
quarian and the artist, often overlook these 
components which make for the well-being of a 
great centre of population. But they are of 
vital interest to the genuine travel-lover, and 
indicate in an unmistakable way the real social 
and economic aspects of its life. 

A capital city Rouen always was. May she 
continue to flourish as one of the artistic capi- 
tals of France, if not of Europe. She is truly 
the city of the best Gothic art. Nowhere else, 
indeed, can one see so complete an exposition 
of the development of this architectural style 
as in Rouen, with its three great and famous 
churches, its half-dozen half -demolished and 



The Seine below Rouen 201 

desecrated ones, its court-house, and old-time 
buildings. 

Again the art of the Kenaissance is here 
seen in its very best domestic application, in 
the old timbered and stone shop fronts and 
houses, in the Hotel Bourgtheroulde, or the 
Tour de la Grrosse Horloge, and the Porte 
Guillaume Lion, almost unknown to the hur- 
ried traveller. 

The magnitude of the harbour of Rouen and 
of Quevilly as a ship-building centre is compar- 
atively unknown to most strangers. 

The real port of Rouen, that part of the 
Seine flanked by imposing warehouses and lux- 
urious quays, shows more plainly than in any 
other inland town or city of France the spec- 
tacle of modern activity which comes from 
commercial association with the cities of other 
lands. It was built at a great expense ; and to- 
day allows access to ships drawing as much as 
twenty-four feet of water and of a burden of 
six thousand tons. The shipping of the port 
amounts to over two million tons a year. 

From Havre to Rouen the depth of the Seine 
varies from 6.0 to 7.5 metres and it is unob- 
structed by locks or bridges. 

Just above the entrance to the Tancarville 
Canal, where rises the Aiguille de Pierre Gant, 



202 Rambles in Nonnandy 

and less loftily the ruined towers of the thir- 
teenth-century Chateau of Tancarville, is a 
bend in the river which offered the guardians of 
the safety thereof an opportunity to install a 
wonderful lighthouse, which at night is weirdly 
kaleidoscopic in its functions, to say the least. 
Here it is that salt-water navigation prac- 
tically ends, and the coast pilot turns over 
his great cargo steamer, bound perhaps from 
Norway, America, or the Antipodes, to Rouen, 
to the tenderer mercies of the river pilot. The 
pilot station is at Quillebeuf, a quaint old 
town on the left bank. Quillebeuf is the port 
of the lower Seine ; but, though its active history 
goes back to the thirteenth century, and it was 
one time known as Henricopolis, because it was 
one of the first cities of Normandy to ac- 
knowledge the French king, there is little of in- 
terest in its streets and quays except for the 
painter of long-shore marines. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SEINE FEOM ROUEN TO PONT DE L^AECHE 



Rouen is truly celebrated for its art; but 
above all it interests the tourist by reason of 
the multiplicity and accessibility of its sights. 

One can well call it to mind by these lines of 
Victor Hugo 's : 

" Rouen, la ville aux vieilles rues, 
Aux vieilles tours, debris des races disparues, 
La ville aux cent clochers carillonnant dans I'air, 
Le Rouen des chateaux, des hotels, des bastiles 
Dent le front h6riss6 de fleches et d'aiguilles 
D6chire incessamment les brumes de la mer." 

All the city's monumental glories cannot be 
described here. The most that is attempted 
is the record of various rambles here and there 
in nooks and corners often not covered by the 
general traveller; practically leaving Rouen's 
magnificent cathedral, its great churches and 
their appointments, its architectural monu- 
ments such as the Palais de Justice, to the 
guide-books of convention. 

203 



204 Rambles in Normandy 

Time was, though difficult of belief now, when 
Rouen was called by an eighteenth-century 
traveller '' an ugly, stinking, close, and ill- 
built town." To-day no provincial city of 
France is more visited by tourists of every 
degree of wealth than the ancient Norman capi- 
tal, and certainly none is more liked. 

Its general aspect is that of a city of modern 
appointments and ancient architectural treas- 
ures, and its municipal governors are keenly 
alive to all that makes for the betterment of 
life within the city limits. 

In spite of all this, some of its ba-ck streets 
and alleys are badly cared for, even to-day; 
and the condition of nodding, leaning, old tim- 
bered houses which artists love, does not by 
any means tend to purify the atmosphere. 

There are some things in regard to which the 
French are still behind the times. Their streets 
are not in the immaculate condition of clean- 
liness in which they ought to be. There is 
always some sort of municipal scavengering, ' 
but often this does not reach to the far corners, 
and often individual effort itself, in the poorer 
quarters, does not go beyond sweeping refuse 
into the gutter or some byway. This is per- 
haps no more true of Rouen than of Amiens, 
of Lyons, or of Marseilles; but, nevertheless, 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 205 

there is a great opportunity for a new effort 
with respect to some of the older quarters, such 
as the streets running immediately back of the 
Church of St. Maclou. 

That '^ Rouen is dearer than Paris " is a 
saying which has come to us from a century- 
old traveller ; and there is certainly some truth 
in it. 

The history of Rouen's bridges is most in- 
teresting. To-day there are but three, and 
only two of them are of the conventional order. 
The celebrated Pont Transbordeur, while being 
essentially practical, is a weird exotic, not en- 
titled to be classed with those masterpieces in 
stone built throughout France in the middle 
ages, many of which exist even to-day. 

The first bridge at Rouen was probably not 
built before the year 1000, and the first docu- 
ment which makes mention of any bridge here 
is an acte de donation of Richard II. in favour 
of the Abbey of Jumieges, dated at Fecamp 
. in 1024. Therein was conceded to the monks at 
Jumieges, the right to fish from Pont de VArche 
up to the Pont de Rouen. At this time the Pont 
de Rouen was a stone structure. A bridge of 
boats replaced this early stone bridge, and was 
considered one of the marvels of its time. 

The monks, it seems, were always endowed 



206 Rambles in Normandy 

with certain talents for bridge-building; and 
like the brothers of the bridge of St. Benezet's 
day at Avignon, took a certain guardianship 
over travellers by road who were obliged to 
make use of these conveniences. The monks 
established shelters near the bridges, or even 
on them in some instances, as in the case of 
the establishment kept up by *' Les Freres du 
Pont " at Avignon. 

It was an Augustinian monk, Pere Nicolas, 
who had furnished the plans for this bridge of 
boats at Rouen. In 1630 it was begun, but five 
years later it was, in part, carried away by a 
flood, which misfortune induced the authorities 
to rebuild it with improvements, permitting 
certain sections to be opened to allow the pas- 
sage of floating ice. However, it met with dis- 
aster again and again, — in 1669, in 1741, 1777, 
and 1799. To-day, besides the Pont Trans- 
hordeur, Rouen's bridges are the Pont Corneille, 
named for the great dramatist, and the Pont 
Bo'ieldieu, named for his brother in arts — this 
time for a great music master. 

Above the He Brouilly, the Western Rail- 
road crosses the Seine on an iron structure held 
aloft on stone piers. The newest of Rouen's 
bridges is the unique and essentially practical 
Pont Transhordeur, opposite the Boulevard 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 207 

Cauchoise, not a wholly beautiful structure, 
though certainly a marvel of interest to the 
stranger. 

It belongs to the workaday world of docks 
and shipping, and is nothing but a mass of 
wire rope and suspended car, or cradle, like 
that of a travelling crane ; but it was economi- 
cal to build, and is equally so to run, and it 
serves the purposes of those whose business 
takes them among the shipping of the really 
great port of Rouen. 

At any rate this marvel is no less beautiful 
than the Tower Bridge on London's river, 
which serves the same purpose. 

After all, the standard of beauty by which 
one judges the things of this world is a variable 
one, and the same person may decry the ugli- 
ness of the Pont Transhordeur at Rouen, and 
yet think a full-rigged ship beautiful. As a 
matter of fact they are each a collection of 
struts and ties, and each is best adapted to the 
end in view; so the standard of judgment be- 
comes a more or less artificial one, based simply 
on what we have been accustomed to see. 

Not every visitor to Rouen searches out the 
delightful Hotel Bourgtheroulde, one of the 
most brilliant Renaissance domestic establish- 
ments yet enduring in Normandy. It was built 



208 Rambles in Normandy 

at great expense in the earliest years of the 
sixteenth century by Messire Guillaume Leronx, 
the seigneur of Bourgtheroulde. The exterior 
to-day shows little of luxury, but its interior 
court has the finely preserved decoration of 
other days, still left for us to marvel at. A 
series of bas-reliefs representing the triumphs 
of Petrarch and the famous interview of the 
" Field of the Cloth of Gold " are the chief 
of these admirable works of art. 

In the desire to absorb all of the momentous 
historical attractions of Eouen one is apt to 
overlook a certain literary shrine, hidden away 
behind the old market. 

In the Rue Pierre Corneille is the house where 
the father of the two poets by the name of Cor- 
neille lived. One reads upon a tablet placed 
upon the house : 

" Ici 6taient la maison 

oil sont n6s les deux Corneilles 

Pierre le 6 juin 1606, Thomas le 24 Aotit 1625." 

One of Rouen's great attractions for many 
is Notre Dame de Bon Secours. As a place of 
pious pilgrimage its virtues may be all that are 
claimed for it, but as an artistic religious ex- 
pression of an artistic and devout people it is 
about as low and vulgar a one as it is possible 



Rouen to Pont de I'Arche 209 

to see. No pagan ever erected a temple so hid- 
eous; and the church itself is set about by a 
burial-ground wherein are as offensive, ill- 
assorted a lot of tombstones as ever spoiled one 
of nature 's masterpieces. It is a masterpiece of 
landscape, — the winding Seine, the busy city 
of Rouen with its church towers and its bridges, 
and the forests of Rouvray, La Londe, and 
Roumare. 

In addition there are curio shops for the sale 
of " oh jets du vertu et du piete/' the quality 
of which would be a disgrace to a fifth-rate 
watering-place. 

A huge bell, too great to be hung in the 
tower of the modern Gothic Church of Our 
Lady, protrudes into the foreground sur- 
rounded by a clumsy iron cage. A placard re- 
quests the public not to throw pieces of stone 
at the bell, though why this should be necessary 
it is hard to say. 

Another sort of a pagan temple, in triplicate, 
is supposed to commemorate the memory of 
Jeanne d'Arc; but it fails utterly to attract, 
and is merely to be counted as another of the 
side-shows of this splendid natural landscape, 
now utterly spoiled. 

The simple marble square in Rouen's old 
market-place, which presents only the plain 



210 Rambles in Normandy 

statement that " on this spot, tied to the stake, 
was burned alive Jeanne d'Arc," etc., is much 
more satisfactory. 

An old-time traveller has said: '' The first 
view of Rouen is sudden and striking. ' ' He had 
come by road from Gisors. '* The road again 
doubled in order to turn more gently down the 
hill, and presents the finest view of a town I 
have ever seen. The city, with all its churches 
and convents, and its cathedral proudly rising 
in the midst, fills the whole vale." 

The scene from the height of Bon Secours, 
where the great national highway from Paris 
drops down on Rouen, is in no way different 
to-day, and indeed it is doubtful if there be a 
finer view of a town in all the world than that 
same prospect. 

What is the finest view in the world will, 
doubtless, always be a question for dispute; 
but those who have seen wide-spread Rouen, 
from the road which winds around to the back 
of Bon Secours, — not from the plateau or ter- 
race of the church, or the Jeanne d'Arc monu- 
ment, — have often reversed their previous 
judgments. 

It is indescribable, unpaintable, impossible 
to photograph in all its glories; so one 
must see it for himself to really know it. The 




5 









Rouen to Pont de I'Arche 211 

spectacle is so magnificent that it seems unreal 
and fairylike, — the great city and its fau- 
bourgs, with its apparently innumerable church 
spires, chimney-stacks, and roof-tops, and the 
broad, brilliant Seine, busy with its puffing 
tugs, great six- thousand-ton steamers, and an 
occasional four-masted ship, flowing through 
its midst. 

Eouen is so admirably supplied with tram- 
ways and steamboats, that a week might well 
be spent in exploring its suburbs by any one 
who has the time and inclination. 

Ossel, practically a suburb of Eouen, as one 
goes Paris-ward, has the look of an important 
manufacturing town; and so it really is, al- 
though it has one architectural treasure in the 
manor-house of Chapelle, dating from the six- 
teenth century. In its enclosure is a curious 
Renaissance work in the form of a pyramid 
held aloft by four columns, beneath which is 
sheltered an ancient well. 

There are numberless small towns and vil- 
lages throughout the length of the Seine which 
are nameless to the majority of summer trav- 
ellers to Normandy. Caudebec they know, but 
Elbeuf, Pont de I'Arche, Les Andelys, St. 
Pierre de Vouvray, Bonniers, Giverny, and La 



212 Rambles in Normandy 

Eoche-Guyon are unknown ground to most of 
them. 

Just above Rouen are innumerable riverside 
villages, many of which have their chief source 
of income from catering to those who like to 
dine al fresco in the country, in a garden over- 
looking the Seine. 

These resorts are more or less of the country- 
fair or rural holiday order, to be sure; but 
hidden away here and there in snug little nooks 
are innumerable delightful gardens and many 
hundreds of arbours and groves where one may 
eat a meal in the open air, or while away a 
sleepy afternoon. And this is precisely just 
what does take place, not only throughout the 
length of the winding Seine, but on every other 
waterway in France. 

There is no limit to the self-respecting capac- 
ity for enjoyment of those who fill these river- 
side resorts on Sundays and holidays. There 
is no drunkenness, no maudlin riot, no blas- 
phemy, and apparently no satiety. 

The games which amuse the French middle 
class on such occasions may, to Anglo-Saxons, 
seem absurdly childish; but no one will deny 
that the very simplicity of them is wholesome, 
and far less detrimental to self-respect than 
the faro and three-card monte games which are 



Rouen to Pont de I'Arche 213 

usually set forth under like conditions else- 
where. Grrown men, sane fathers, and portly 
matrons join with the younger folk at such 
juvenile sports as swings, tilting-boards, ''Aunt 
Sally," and ninepins, not forgetting the ever- 
present ring and cane games. 

In contrast to this are the more luxurious, 
if less moral, resorts of the wealthy class; or, 
at least, of that class which keeps more money 
in circulation. 

The dwellers in the Seine valley, like those 
along the countless other streams of France, 
are great fishermen ; not so much for the sport 
or the quarry it may provide, nor for sociabil- 
ity, since the fisherman's art is the least 
sociable of sports, as, it would seem, for the 
purpose of meditation. There is good fishing 
in the Seine, as all who partake thereof well 
know. From the Paris bridges and quays down 
the river to Rouen are many famous fishing- 
grounds. 

Here it is that you see the true fisherman 
in all his glory. He sits beneath his big hat, 
or under an umbrella if the sun shines strongly, 
in a low-backed chair in a punt, and patiently 
holds his rod or line from early morn to late 
at night. 

When he lays down his line for a time the 



214 



Rambles in Normandy 




x> 



French fisherman begins to think of eating and 
drinking. None of your ordinary picnic lunches 



Rouen to Pont de I'Arche 215 

either, of cold ham and hard boiled eggs ; but 
most likely a cold fowl, washed down with good 
wine; and he prefers cold coffee to weak tea 
as an afterthought. This if he is not within 
hail of a waterside inn, in which case he will 
find provided a variety and a quantity of well- 
prepared food to suit both his taste and his 
appetite. 

One has heard of chapels in rocks before now. 
Indeed, if memory serves truly, there are sev- 
eral in various parts of Europe that are re- 
markable not only for the manner of building, 
but often for local tradition and legend as well. 
There is nothing remarkable about the rock- 
hewn, cliff-cut Chapel of St. Adrien, near Rouen, 
to give it any great distinction, except its man- 
ner of building; and in this respect it is far 
more interesting than many already more fa- 
mous. There is no pretence at architectural 
splendour, and the size of the edifice precludes 
the possibility of any vast utility. Still there 
is something more than a mere curio-value to 
this little chapel cut in the limestone cliff above 
the Seine, and as an ecclesiastical monument 
of note it is far more worthy than the pilgrim 
shrine at Bon Secours. 

The cafes and open-air restaurants at its 
feet somewhat savour of the frivolous. But 



216 Rambles in Normandy 

what would you? They are there simply be- 
cause it is a beautiful spot accessible to the 
busy city of Eouen; and are withal orderly 
and well-conducted, well-patronized places. Be- 
tween Pont de I'Arche and Rouen is Elbeuf, 
perhaps as famous to-day for its cloth-manu- 
factories as for its storied past. This, how- 
ever, will not interest the seeker of historic 
shrines, nor will the miles of execrable pave- 
ment and the tram-tracks which line its five 
kilometres of main street please automobilists. 
These detractions account for the absence of 
the tourist from the busy but picturesque town 
of Elbeuf. Nor is there much to admire here 
except its curious, conglomerate old church and 
the general picturesqueness of its surroundings, 
heightened even by the commonplaceness of the 
busy little industrial city itself. The tall chim- 
neys of its cloth-factories, and the streamers 
of black smoke continually belching therefrom, 
soften and tone down the tints of sky and land- 
scape in the real symphonic fashion set by 
Whistler. 

The streams which ripple through the town 
are all shades of the rainbow, on account of 
the refuse of the dye-works; and the very at- 
mosphere is charged with an odour which be- 
speaks the industry of a manufacturing town, 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 217 

such as one comes across only in France or 
Germany, picturesquely situated on a river's 
bank, and literally humming with the whir of 
many wheels. 

All manner of cloths are made here, es- 
pecially those finer qualities used in the make-up 
of officers' uniforms, carriage cloths, and the 
coverings of billiard-tables. There are at least 
twenty-five thousand men and women employed 
here, and all the shops of the town are sup- 
ported by them. The combined industries turn 
out a product to the value of ninety millions of 
francs per year. 

It was at an inn here that Arthur Young, 
that astute observer of matters agricultural, 
learned at table d'hote — a matter of common 
knowledge among the guests there assembled — 
that the wine provinces of France were actu- 
ally the poorest in all France. With some ex- 
ceptions this is true to-day, and is plausibly 
explained elsewhere. Times have truly changed 
since Young wrote that he had not found one 
decent inn in all France. 

It must be recalled that the fashionable, or 
rather the modern up-to-date hotel, with its 
elaborate table d'hote, is much the same wher- 
ever found; and that an inland spa or a water- 
ing-place on the Mediterranean coast of France, 



218 Rambles in Normandy 

or at Ostend, Dieppe, or Trouville, does not 
differ greatly from an establishment of the 
same class in Paris, London, or New York. 

The genuine traveller will have none of this, 
however, with its ever recurring mutton served 
under the name of agneau de Pauillac, and 
the eternal rag-time music of an alleged Hun- 
garian band whose only claim to the title is 
the more or less incorrect copy of a Magyar 
uniform in which the players are dressed. The 
hotels de luxe have their place in the scheme 
of things as ordained to-day, no doubt, but they 
offer absolutely nothing to the lover of travel 
for its own sake, and are accordingly dreaded 
by most. 

The inns of France which one meets in tour- 
ing the country are so much better than similar 
establishments in England that the comparison 
is odious. 

This may be disputed. Yet where in England, 
in a village of 1,500 inhabitants, will you get 
a five-course dinner or luncheon splendidly 
cooked, bountifully served, and with a season- 
ing and garnishing which it is impossible to 
duplicate elsewhere, for a modest two francs 
and a half, and at practically a moment's no- 
tice? To be sure, it is always omelet, chicken, 
and salad; but that is surely better than the 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 219 

eternal bacon and eggs and cold boiled mutton 
of the English country inn. 

The roadside inns are not becoming spoiled, 
either. On the beaten track where tour- 
ists throng they still possess the sentiment of 
good cheer in a more substantial manner than 
is implied by a few churchwardens and Brum- 
magem pewter plates stuck up over the mantel ; 
and if they lack ' ' visitors ' books, ' ' with sorry 
verses and weak platitudes about being ' ' home 
from home, ' ' they make up for it in good food 
and clean beds; and for what else does one 
go to a hotel? 

Once and again, in the larger towns where 
there is an English quarter, and tea-and-bun- 
shops exist, there also may be found a '^ Hotel 
des lies Brittaniques " which caters, appar- 
ently, solely to milords and millionaires; and, 
is quite different from the Hotel du Pays, 
around the corner on the market-place, where 
you may drink your bock, or dine, or play 
dominoes with a smock-frocked peasant from 
the country-side. 

The following incident happened in one of 
these great hotels situated in the principal city 
of a Norman department. At least, a right- 
eously indignant Frenchman assured us that it 



220 Rambles in Normandy 

did happen ; and there was no reason to doubt 
his word : 

He was touring in an automobile of modest 
size, not loaded down with luggage, four people 
in the tonneau, a mechanic, and the driver. 
The hotel clientele, for the time at any rate, 
was composed of what the French call '' Mil- 
liardairs Americains." This is the universal 
name given those who make a vulgar show of 
money, others are merely '' Les Anglais." 

Upon applying at the desk for a room, our 
Frenchman was met with an astonished stare 
and a curt reply that they had none such ; and 
that the house was full except for a " chambre 
a mecanicien " over the scullery. Our friend 
bowed his apologies and regrets, and departed, 
but with true G-allic ingenuity brought up within 
an hour at a small town twenty kilometres 
away, and telephoned the before mentioned 
hotel in this wise : 

" Alio! alio! je souis lord Whisky, oune 
cliente anglese, auriez-vous cinq chambres con- 
fortebles pour moa et mon souite et garage 
pour mes deux automobiles^ " 

The reply came back over the wire satisfac- 
torily enough : 

" Mais comment done, Excellence, tout ce que 
son Excellence voudra! " 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 221 

Then our friend had his turn. 

^* Non, cher monsieur, je me contenterai de 
la chambre a mecanicien que vous avez offerte 
il y a quelques heures a un frangais! " 

In the main the inns of the Seine valley are 
no better or no worse than in other parts of 
France. They may not rival the Hotel de Metz 
at St. Menehould, the fame of which was in 
part made by Victor Hugo's charming descrip- 
tion in " Le Rhin " ; and in Normandy they 
have not the same splendid abundance of good 
things of the table as in Burgundy, where the 
wine and the blood is rich ; but they are amply 
endowed with creature comforts, and since the 
Touring Club of France and the Automobile 
Club have taken it upon themselves to counsel 
more care in sanitation, the inns of all France 
are infinitely to be preferred to those of any 
,other country. 

Of all the near-by towns more or less inti- 
mately associated with Eouen, the most prom- 
inent and attractive of all is the little town of 
Pont de I'Arche. It is known to most travel- 
lers as a railway junction with little or nothing 
of attractiveness about it. There is the usual 
warehouse for freight, signal-house, and the 
" Bifur a Gisors," a station hotel, and an un- 
pretentious cafe or two; but that is all, if we 



222 Rambles in Normandy 

except a long, tree-lined avenue which leads to 
a more ambitious group of houses, a mile or 
so away. 

This is Pont de I'Arche. Its church and its 
few hundred houses lie mostly hidden from the 
railway by the screen of poplars on the long 
avenue leading from the station. Incidentally 
this adds additional attraction; and to-day 
there is nothing save the distant shriek of a 
locomotive to remind one its inhabitants are 
not living in another age. The river glides 
by as in olden times, and there is much boat 
and barge traffic. The town is not so espe- 
cially decrepit, nor dirty, nor unwholesome; 
but it has a certain lackaday air of aversion 
to modernity which a town of its size seldom 
lacks in this part of France. 

Those who know this charming little town 
admire it the more because of its somnolent 
air. It sits high on the escarpment of the 
river bank, one roughly paved street running 
indirectly to the water, which is crossed by the 
usual conventionally designed bridge. On the 
very brink is its stately, dignified Church of 
Notre Dame des Arts; and something more 
than scanty remains of the town 's ancient ram- 
parts are still visible, notably in what is known 
as the Citadel. 







<5> 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 223 

It is from this citadel that the etymologists 
derive the name of Pont de 1 ' Arche, from Pont- 
arcy, which evolved itself from Pont arcis 
mece (pont de ma citadelle), given to it by 
Charles the Bald, who had sojourned there. 

Pont de I'Arche was one of the first towns 
of Normandy to open its gates to Henri IV. 
during his strife to reconquer his kingdom. At 
this time the ramparts were an effective pro- 
tection against outside interference. Doubly 
so, in that its machicolated walls and towers 
were ably supported by the natural escarpment 
of the river bank. 

The Church of Notre Dame des Arts is doubt- 
less the only one of its name in Christendom. 
The reason for this singularly appropriate no- 
menclature will be obvious ; and already, though 
the fabric is an unfinished one, and in still 
other parts has suffered the decay of time, the 
edifice itself proudly proclaims its right to the 
name. As a species of architectural art itself, 
Notre Dame des Arts comes well within the 
third ogival period (fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies), with some good carvings in wood of the 
seventeenth century, and some acceptable glass 
of the same century or possibly of that pre- 
ceding. 

The restoration of this fine church has been 



224 Rambles in Normandy 

most lovingly undertaken; and a most difficult 
piece of work it has proved not to debase the 
florid ornament beyond its original conception, 
which among neighbouring churches ranks it 
with the collegiate church at Eu, and St. Vin- 
cent's at Eouen, if not actually with St. Maclou 
itself, the richest and most florid of all the 
Gothic churches previous to the Renaissance. 

Though contracted, the interior likewise dis- 
plays that profusion of ornament which char- 
acterizes the flamboyant style, notably in the 
keys of the vaulting, which show a remarkable 
strength. Its fenestration is good, as well as 
the glass, and such auxiliary features and fur- 
nishings as the retable and the organ hwffet, 
which are acceptable, if somewhat debased from 
Gothic forms. Indeed, these features are sel- 
dom seen in anything but the more or less heavy 
Renaissance treatment of large masses. 

Pont de 1 ' Arche is the birthplace of Hyacinthe 
Langlois, architect and antiquary. His monu- 
ment, erected through the beneficence of a little 
group of Norman archaeologists, is on the little 
public square before the house in which the ac- 
complished and versatile man was born. The 
fact is mentioned here in order to emphasize 
the regard which all French towns hold for the 
memory of any deserving person and his work. 



Rouen to Pont de TArche 225 

Langlois, the Norman antiquary, was perhaps 
not so very great a personage, but in the eyes 
of his fellow townsmen his was at least a fame 
which deserved a memorial which should out- 
live man. 

The name Notre Dame des Arts is singularly 
appropriate to a finely planned church. One 
defines art as '^ the realization of a concep- 
tion," which in most cases is God-given, so 
far as the individual effort is concerned. Art 
is truth, therefore art is elevating, and it is 
chosen as the instrument that shall echo the 
grand truths which ennoble and purify man- 
kind. 

An eloquent plea is made to the artists of 
France to contribute their aid in glorifying the 
fabric of Notre Dame des Arts by the Abbe 
Philippe, vicar-dean of Pont de I'Arche. 

The dean makes a most convincing plea, which 
is printed in a little book and presented to 
visitors. It is all very dogmatic, but still its 
object is commendable enough, one must admit. 
It smacks, too, of personal pride in the posses- 
sion of this beautiful church, which again is 
surely pardonable. Most of us will admit that 
it is altogether a charming idea that a church 
should be built and beautified and dedicated 
to art, leaving others to cavil at dogma. 



226 Rambles in Normandy 

The plea of the devoted dean of the church 
ends with the intimation that it is proposed to 
erect mural tablets which shall emblazon in 
letters of gold the names of all who may con- 
tribute to the preservation and enrichment of 
the fabric. Future generations will then see 
that in the early years of the twentieth cen- 
tury the friends of art were not oblivious to 
its higher expression, and were devoted enough 
to further it in this noble monument. 

The dean's garden, just before the westerly 
end of the church, is charming in its unworld- 
liness. From it one enters the sanctuary in 
a roundabout way along gravelled walks, box- 
covered hedges, bright-flowered beds and 
small garden trees loaded with plums, apricots, 
and pears. Nothing here is suggestive of the 
onrush of time ; there is no hum of the electric- 
car to be heard; no rush of the automobile, 
no smell of gasoline, and no grime of the work- 
aday world. The church itself towers above 
to the eastward, and opposite is the modest 
house of the dean, all suggestive of peaceful- 
ness and content. 

Next to the Church of Notre Dame des Arts, 
the Pons Arcis of the days of Charles the Bald 
has its chief historical and artistic shrine in 



Rouen to Pont de I'Arche 227 

the old Abbey of Bon Port, now scarcely more 
than a riverside rnin. 

It belonged originally to the monks of the 
order of Citeaux, and was founded by the Lion- 
hearted Richard in 1190 as the outcome of a 
vow made while pursuing a cerf across the 
river, to the effect that if his horse ever 
reached the other bank — " un hon port " — he 
would erect a monastery on the spot. 

To-day the ruins belong to a M. Lenoble, who 
has spent much care and expense in preserving 
what is left of this interesting relic. Of the 
abbatial church nothing remains but the foun- 
dations. The refectory is in a fine state of 
preservation, with an admirably designed series 
of windows. 

The cloistral buildings still exist in some- 
thing more than mere ruins. The capitulary 
hall has been reestablished after its original 
lines, and its library, with its high wood ceiling 
of the time of Louis XVI., is admirable. 

The remains of the old abbey are reflected 
in the Seine, which winds about its feet and 
forms cool, shadowy pools now frequented by 
fishermen from Rouen, as they doubtless were 
by monkish anglers in days gone past. 

After this contemplative trip about Pont de 
I'Arche one is quite ready to resort to the 



228 Rambles in Normandy 

charming hotel of Guennord's — ** La Nor- 
mandie ' ' — near the bridge and partake of the 
unusually good luncheon served in a room over- 
looking the river. This dining-room, like those 
of many another spot in France beloved of 
artists, is panelled with sketches donated by 
them. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SEINE FEOM PONT DE l'aECHE TO LA 
ROCHE-GUYON 

Up the river from Pont de I'Arche the 
beauties of the Seine are truly irresistible to 
the true traveller of artistic proclivities. At 
every kilometre stone along its banks the view 
has that charm of majestic simplicity that 
might be expected of a great inland waterway. 

Not that it has no variety at all. It is an 
ever-changing panorama of a silvery sheet, re- 
flecting the sky and clouds and the green and 
white of the chalk and tree clad river banks, 
in truly mystical fashion. 

Just above Pont de I'Arche, the Eure and the 
Andelle join the Seine. The former is given 
a chapter by itself in this book, but the Andelle 
is merely one of those winsome little streams 
which in many other lands would hardly have 
arrived at the dignity of being called a river. 
Not every traveller in France knows the little 
river Andelle which rises in the district of 

229 



230 Rambles in Normandy- 

Bray and flows southwesterly fifty kilometres 
or more until it mingles with the Seine at Pitres, 
near Pont de I'Arche, and almost exactly op- 
posite the mouth of the Eure. 

Forges-les-Eaux, near which the Andelle 
rises, first became celebrated for its chalybeate 
springs in the time of Anne of Austria, mother 
of Louis XIV., who, with many other celebrities 
of royal and noble birth, went there to take the 
waters. 

To-day its fame has not wholly departed; 
but those who go to such places usually find 
that they are the more beneficial, the more 
fashionable they are, and the more alluring 
its amusements. Forges-les-Eaux is not one 
of the most fashionable, hence the virtues of 
its waters are now somewhat negatived. This 
is a pity, for it is in the midst of a charming 
country, and the sylvan attractions round about 
are doubtless as good an antidote to the ex- 
cessive imbibing of water as '' Petits Chevaux " 
or " T rente et Quarante." 

There are, however, no very splendid archi- 
tectural remains in the town itself. A few old 
houses, some far more interesting ones in the 
country near by, a conventional '' Etahlisse- 
ment '* and a modern Gothic church, after the 
old-time manner, complete the list of attractions 



Pont de TArche to Eoche-Guyon 231 

of Forges-les-Eaux, in addition to tke springs 
themselves. 

Southwesterly until one reaches the forest 
of Lyons, nearly four hundred square miles in 
extent, there is naught in this beautiful river 
valley but a succession of typical French vil- 
lages, with high stone walls enclosing farms, 
red-roofed cottages, and outbuildings; and an 
occasional pigeonnier, and wayside cross. 

At Lyons-le-Foret, the little forest town of 
perhaps half a thousand inhabitants, one comes 
immediately into touch with a civilization 
strangely out of keeping with its idyllic setting. 
There is a hotel there with all the improve- 
ments of our own time: enamelled baths, run- 
ning water, an automobile omnibus to the sta- 
tion, seven kilometres distant, ice for cold 
drinks, Scotch whisky, and many other luxuries 
which discount one's enjoyment of real country 
travel. 

It is pleasant enough, however, on a hot sum- 
mer's day; and the town itself is delightfully 
unspoiled, with its crooked, winding streets, its 
picturesque though not beautiful market-house, 
its pretty little church, and the tiny river 
Lieure, a tributary of the Andelle, where one 
may take fish if he likes. 

Being in the midst of this great forest, it 



232 Rambles in Normandy 

is but natural that the church of Lyons-le-Foret 
should have a shrine to St. Hubert, the patron 
of the hunt. It is there on the north wall of 
the single nave of the church, with all its well- 
recognized symbolism; though, truth to tell, it 
is rather a tawdry shrine of no great artistic 
merit, and horribly desecrated by a coat of 
dirty yellow paint. 

Menesqueville is the station for Lyons-le- 
Foret, and from here to the Seine the banks of 
the Andelle are settled with little cloth-manu- 
facturing villages and towns which form a 
curious contrast to their more peaceful wooded 
backgrounds. 

Near by are Rosy, with its Renaissance cha- 
teau; Charleval, with its towering chimney- 
stacks; Fleury-sur- Andelle, with its steep hill, 
so dreaded by automobilists ; Radepont, with its 
eighteenth-century ruined chateau, abbey, and 
tower; Pont St. Pierre, which is simply a pic- 
turesque, paintable, and lovable little town; 
and, finally, as one draws even nearer the Seine, 
Pitres, known formerly as Pistes, where archae- 
ologists have told us was an ancient Gallo- 
Romain city which came to great prosperity 
under the first and second races of kings. 

The emperors after Charlemagne had their 
houses here, as one learns from the fragments 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 233 

of buildings which remain and the scraps of his- 
tory which have come down to us. Charles the 
Bald ordered the principal feudal lords to 
build, each in his fief, citadels strong enough to 
arrest the Normans. A formidable one is 
known to have been built here, though but 
scanty remains exist to-day. 

It is a curious, and contradicting history that 
is to be evolved from the topography of the 
river Andelle. Throughout the valley one re- 
ceives emotions varying from those of sylvan 
and idyllic surroundings on the upper river, to 
those aroused by the busy little towns peopled 
with yarn-spinners and cloth-weavers of both 
sexes, who are supremely happy at their work, 
which lasts for a dozen hours each day. 

The middle ages covered this contented val- 
ley of to-day with numberless fortresses, which 
are now scarcely recognizable even as ruins. 
The tower of Jean-Sans-Terre which remains 
at Radepont, together with the earlier work of 
Eichard Coeur de Lion, is the exception. These 
sit on the side of a profound and luxuriant 
gorge environed with the remains of the Abbey 
of Fontaine-Guerard, and should be searched 
out if one has the time. 

At Douville, between Radepont and Pont St. 
Pierre, are the ruined walls of the Chateau of 



234 Rambles in Normandy 

Talbot. South of the Andelle was what is 
known as Norman Vexin, one of those little dis- 
tricts of the olden time which even unto to-day 
has kept its name. 

At Ecouis, not far from the banks of the An- 
delle, is a magnificent church built at the high- 
est point of Vexin, amid a country wholly given 
over to wheat-fields. The church was founded 
by Enguerrand de Marigny and consecrated in 
1313. In the interior is a magnificent mauso- 
leum of Jean de Marigny, a former Archbishop 
of Rouen, the brother of the founder. It is a 
wayside shrine of quite the first rank, though 
seldom visited or seen except by travellers 
through Normandy by road. 

Near the juncture of the Andelle is St. 
Etienne du Vauvray, the chief and only attrac- 
tion of which is its curiously outre church, with 
a conventional central tower, slated, and capped 
with a singularly light and graceful iron cross, 
which in turn is surmounted by a representa- 
tion of a cock, dear to the French as a symbol 
of the ancient Gauls. 

The really great and most curious feature of 
this ancient church is the peculiar round tower 
which rises on the south side midway along the 
nave and is joined to its more modern neigh- 
bour by a ligature which is, in a way, inexpli- 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 235 

cable. One can understand the desire to preserve 
so ancient and curious a relic, and even evolve 
for himself its original use, though it looks for 
all the world like the round towers of Ireland, 
which many a savant has declared were pagan. 

The easterly portion of this curious church 
— the more ancient part — extending from this 
flanking round tower is a wonderfully massive 
structure considering its size. Its portal is 
bare and gaunt and devoid of ornament; but 
it is typically Norman, with that strength of 
proportion which even in the best of Gothic 
often fell short of the earlier style. The west- 
ern end is modern, shockingly so, with 
pepper-box exaggerated apse and no transepts. 

There is elaborate glass throughout, though 
apparently of no great value. It is a charming 
ensemble of reds, greens, and browns that com- 
poses the view of this tiny church which one 
gets from before the astonishingly ample 
mairie, on the road to St. Pierre-du-Vauvray, 
the railway junction for Louviers and Les 
Andelys. 

Muids, en route from St. Pierre to Les 
Andelys, is ordinary enough looking, at first 
glance, to justify travellers by road — auto- 
mobilists and cyclists — to rush by without 
stopping, in spite of its beautiful situation on 



236 Rambles in Normandy 

the banks of the Seine. Travellers by train 
will hardly give it a glance, for the outlook 
therefrom is not inspiring. It has, however, 
a church which dates from the twelfth century, 
and in its churchyard is a sixteenth-century 
memorial cross which is indeed an admirable 
art treasure. 

An artist will fall in love with the ancient 
mill, picturesquely planted on the river 's bank ; 
and, if it were not that the proudly set Chateau 
Gaillard, to be seen in the distance, draws one 
to it in a magnetic and inexpressible fashion, 
many pages of his sketch-book would undoubt- 
edly reproduce some of the charm of the en- 
vironment of this otherwise unattractive vil- 
lage, which it may be said possesses no accom- 
modation for the traveller save the roadside 
tavern. 

The road to Les Andelys runs from St. 
Pierre, by the left bank of the Seine, for nearly 
a dozen kilometres. 

Above are the great towering crags of chalk, 
cut in fantastic forms ; and beside one, almost 
upon the same level, is the great boat and barge 
traffic of the Seine. One sees great barges, 
some coal-laden from Belgium and others 
with cargoes of wine, cotton, or lumber from 
Havre and Eouen, all bound for Paris. 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 237 

The twin towns of Les Andelys are famed 
— if famed they are in the minds of tlie casual 
travellers — for the ' ' Saucy Castle ' ' of Rich- 
ard Coeur de Lion, — the Chateau Gaillard, his 
'' daughter of a year," as he himself called it. 

The great Continental strength of the Kings 
of England — the Angevin kings, not English 
kings, mark well — who were the Dues de Nor- 
mandie, gave to the France of Philippe- 
Auguste no little concern. They held nearly, 
if not quite all, the coast of ancient Glaul, from 
the northernmost limits of Normandy to the 
Pyrenees; and were virtually masters of Bre- 
tagne, Anjou, Maine, and Aquitaine, which en- 
circled the France of Philippe-Auguste like a 
vast belt and struck to the heart the new 
empire. 

The great Philippe-Auguste, who hoped to do 
-so much toward welding new France, had pro- 
fessed a great fondness for Richard Coeur de 
Lion, and had even undertaken the Third Cru- 
sade in company with him. This did not pre- 
vent him, however, from assailing the English 
possessions in France, ultimately occupying 
Normandy, Maine, and Poitou. 

Among the heritages which had come down 
to Richard Coeur de Lion from the Angevin 
Henry II. was the desire, as far as possible, to 



238 ' Rambles in Normandy 

protect his fair province of Normandy from 
the political outbreaks and warlike invasions 
which might happen at any time. 

Richard was not as great a political power 
as Philippe- Auguste ; but he was more than 
his equal in military skill. He cared not so 
much to possess the sceptre of his brother king 
as his sword. Accordingly he erected the re- 
doubtable fortress at Les Andelys, which to-day, 
ruin though it is, charms the thousands that 
have appreciated its majesty and its all domi- 
nant situation high above the cobble-paved main 
street of Petit Andelys; so distant from the 
surface of the river which washes its very 
haunches that the river boats and barges look 
like crawling, creeping things endowed with 
crude animal forces rather than steam or man- 
power. 

When the historian writes of Chateau Gail- 
lard and the siege which it withstood against 
Philippe- Auguste he writes of one of the most 
decisive and memorable events in the annals 
of French history ; and for this reason it is not 
recounted here. All histories give it in full. 

As a monurnent of military architecture 
Chateau Graillard, putting aside the interest in 
the events of its history, holds, without contra- 
diction, the premier place among all structures 



Pont de TArche to Roche-CS^uyon 239 

of the same class which to-day exist through- 
out Europe. 

Whoever wishes to know what a mediseval 
chateau — in this case a fortified castle of great 
size, and as near as possible, perhaps, to invul- 
nerability — was really like, should study the 
Chateau Gaillard of Richard Coeur de Lion 
in detail. 




jrncient 9'/an <f 

Chateau G^iillard 



' It was Richard Coeur de Lion, an English 
king, who built this stronghold to guard his 
dominions on the Seine, but the whole fabric, 
as is the case with English history of the 
period, was built upon a foundation manifestly 
not English. 

Artists have often limned the outlines of this 
great fortress both in detail and in conjunction 
with its charming environment ; but justice has 
hardly been done. Perhaps it was not possible, 



240 Rambles in Normandy 

for certainly Chateau Gaillard must be seen 
to be appreciated. 

Cotman, Turner, and, in more recent times, 
Alfred East, R. A., have all painted it and its 
proud position; and scores of lesser artists 
have tried their hand. Certainly no mediaeval 
monument existing in modern times has a more 
commanding or magnificently picturesque situ- 
ation. 

The Seine at Petit Andelys amplifies itself 
at the bend across which the lion-hearted 
Richard spread his chains in defence of his 
chateau. Above, scarce five hundred yards, 
the river is narrower than at any other part 
along its length between Paris and the sea. 

The tiny islands just below the bridge dot 
the stream quite in the manner of the wooded 
islets elsewhere, but the background, the 
chateau-crowned height, the winding river 
road to Vernon, flanked by forest-clad hills, 
the woods above Vacherie, and the chalky strati- 
fied formation off toward Muids, — all combine 
to make an ensemble which can only be seen 
in Normandy, along the valley of the Seine. 

The twin towns of Les Andelys are quite the 
most delightful and charming towns in all the 
Seine valley. None are so beautifully situ- 
ated, so characteristically unworldly, and yet 













f^ 






K 



Pont de I'Arche to Roche-Guyon 241 

so gay with local life and colour on a national 
holiday. 

Petit Andelys, on the river bank, is a sort 
of watering-place suburb for the larger town, 
which lies '' un hon kilometre " away, the native 
tells you, up a long, straight, tree-shaded boule- 
vard, which would add glory to a much greater 
city. 

Each of the towns possess a magnificent and 
delightful mediaeval church. That of Grand 
Andelys is the more elaborate and is truly a 
grand affair, with very good late Gothic, some 
good fifteenth-century glass, curious aisle vault- 
ings and arches in its interior; and, finally, a 
north f agade in the ugliest of Renaissance work- 
manship which ever disgraced an otherwise 
beautiful Gothic fabric. 

The Hotel du Grand Cerf, a sixteenth-cen- 
- tury tavern, which has come down to the present 
day still possessed of some of its ancient fur- 
nishings of old oak, stone, and plaster, is an- 
other great attraction in Grand Andelys. 

The present cafe shows most of these: a 
great Renaissance fireplace with its accessories, 
an overhanging mantel, and a couple of corner 
cupboards which are delightful. The en- 
trance from the courtyard is also elaborately 
carved. Walter Scott and Victor Hugo have 



242 Rambles in Normandy 

both sung the praises of the house and graced 
its board, and it should be seen by travellers. 

St. Sauveur's at Petit Andelys is in quite a 
different class from its sister church at Grand 
Andelys. It is smaller, and a thoroughly con- 
sistent twelfth-century fabric, wholly delight- 
ful in its plan and execution. In short, it is 
one of the most perfectly designed and pre- 
served edifices of its kind in all France. 

The fetes of the patron saints of Les An- 
delys, Ste. Clotilde at Grand Andelys (June) 
and St. Sauveur at Petit Andelys (August), are 
events which draw great crowds from round 
about, and are the cause of much gaiety of a 
truly local nature. 

Grand Andelys has, moreover, a miraculous 
fountain dedicated to Ste. Clotilde. It is the 
centre for a pilgrimage on the second of June 
of each year, the date on which the saint, who 
was the wife of Clovis, caused the water to 
be turned to wine. The same thing has not 
happened since ; but the fountain is still a ven- 
erated shrine. 

The national fete on the fourteenth of July 
brings out crowds of people from the inland 
towns and villages, to bathe and go boating in 
the river, and eat and drink in the gardens of 
Petit Andelys 's two charming riverside hotels. 



Pont de I'Arche to Roche-Guyon 243 

The Anglo-Saxon tourist will not want for 
company here at Petit Andelys, though it is 
not a very popular tourist resort. But if he 
drifts into the garden courtyard of the Hotel 
Bellevue, in mid-July or August, or indeed at 
most any time between May and November, he 
will find a joyous crowd of artists gathered 
about a long table set beneath the trees. At 
night the electric lights — the one worldly note 
of it all — twinkle out from among the trees, 
and the talk on art, literature, and automobiles 
which goes from mouth to mouth, would fill 
any one with interest, and hold his attention 
no matter how blase he may think himself. 

In the ancient district of Vexin lying back 
of Les Andelys, in the valley of the Gambon, 
and beyond, are many little farming villages 
and towns which are a delight to the artist and 
the traveller who is also a seeker after local 
colour : Ecouis, with its great collegiate church ; 
Etrepagny, with a fourteenth-century church 
and a fine hotel in the style of Louis XIII.; 
Gamaches, with some underground remains 
and other traces of an old fortress-chateau; 
Thilliers-en- Vexin, with the Chateau de Bois- 
denemetz, built under Louis XIIL, the building 
and grounds having been laid out by Mansard ; 
and Fontenay, with the Chateau of Beauregard, 



244 Rambles in Normandy 

where was born the Abbe de Chaulieu, cele- 
brated as much by his Anacreontic poems as by 
his churchly qualifications. 

As one draws near to Gisors one passes the 
ruined donjon of Neufles-St.-Martin (1182), 
built by Henry II. of England, and the ancient 
Chateau de Vaux, built also on the plans of 
Mansard, but now forming the manor-house of 
a great farm. 

Gisors is not often visited by casual travel- 
lers in Normandy. They usually make for 
Evreux, when they leave the Seine valley, in 
order to visit its cathedral, they will tell you; 
certainly not for anything else, for Evreux does 
not possess many tourist attractions. 

As a matter of fact, they would do better to 
leave Evreux out of their itinerary and visit 
Gisors, which has a great mediasval Gothic and 
Renaissance church, quite as grand and bizarre 
as Evreux Cathedral. The Church of St. Ger- 
vais at Gisors dates from the year 1240, and is 
called by the native, with unwarranted pride, 
" la cathedrale." 

To a great extent its foundation was due to 
Blanche of Castile ; and it is one of those highly 
interesting works occasionally to be found in 
France, which has no architectural style in par- 
ticular and is accordingly, in the eyes of the 




Collegiate Churchy Ecouis 



Pont de I'Arche to Roche-Guyon 245 



critical experts, an ungainly thing. But St. 
Gervais de Gisors is a remarkable work. It 
possesses two elaborate late Gothic portals, 
though for the most part its details are frankly 
Renaissance. Again, the still earlier period 
of its foundation crops out bare and un- 
adorned. In the sacristy is a rare bibliograph- 
ical treasure, a register on parchment of the 
brothers and sisters of the Confrerie de I'As- 
somption Notre Dame. Heading the list are 
the names of Charles V., his queen, and his 
suite, the Due de Bourgogne, the Due de Berri, 
the Due d 'Orleans, the Duchess d 'Orleans, the 
Comte d'Etampes, etc. This fine piece of work 
is admirably ornamented with miniature and 
armorial blazonings and continues the roll of 
names up to 1776. Altogether it is a manu- 
script of great interest and worth. 
' Gisors itself is rather a smug town with a 
characteristically good hotel (I'Ecu de France) 
and the usual collection of country shops. 

The Ept and two smaller branches run 
through the town ; and here and there the pic- 
turesque wash-houses on their banks group 
themselves most picturesquely, with the roof 
tops of the houses round about and the church 
steeple or the donjon of the old chateau rising 
high above. 



246 Rambles in Normandy 

The history of Gisors has been most vivid, 
and there are many remains of its past ac- 
tivities and glories in warfare and strategy. 
Before the tenth century, Gisors was but the 
site of a small chateau held as a fief from the 
Church of Rouen. Ultimately it was acquired 
by Guillaume-le-Eoux, who made Gisors the key 
of the eastern frontier between Normandy and 
the royal domain of the Kings of France. 

The remains of the fortress-chateau, built 
by Guillaume-le-Roux in 1097, show plainly that 
it was one of the wonders of the military archi- 
tecture of its time. Additions and reinforce- 
ments were made in turn by Henri I. and II.; 
and, from the conquest of Normandy by 
Philippe- Auguste until to-day, its ruins, though 
fragmentary and widely separated, form one 
of the greatest collections of details of a medi- 
aeval fortress to be seen in the north of France. 
It does not form a unit as does the chateau at 
Les Andelys, nor is it a mere tower or donjon, 
as at Arques, Falaise, or Conches, but it pre- 
sents a convincing indication of its former 
strength and magnitude. 

Within its confines are the remains of a 
chapel dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury; 
but the chief feature is the great Tour des 
Prisonniers, some sixty odd feet in height. 




Gisors 



Pont de PArche to Roche-Guyon 247 

This great cylindrical tower was erected by 
Philippe- Auguste, and for a long time served 
as a prison of state. Many will remember an 
old steel engraving of a painting called " The 
Prisoner of Gisors," which depicts the interior 
of this great tower. 

In 1527 Frangois I. gave the domain of Gisors 
to Renee de France, on the occasion of her mar- 
riage to the Duke of Ferrara. 

In 1718 it was given to Fouquet, in exchange 
for Belle-Ile-en-Mer, and later, in turn, to the 
Comte d'Eu, and the Due de Penthievre. 

On the little bridge which crosses the Ept, 
between the station and the church, is a statue 
of the Virgin, which perpetuates the thanks of 
Philippe-Auguste at having been saved from 
drowning in the stream below, when he had 
fallen with his mounted escort through the rot- 
ting timbers of an old-time bridge. The in- 
scription thereon tells the story in detail. 

At Dangu is still a splendid chateau, and at 
St.-Clair-sur-Ept are the remains of a fortified 
castle, where, in 911, was signed the treaty by 
which Charles the Simple ceded Neustria to the 
pirate Rollon, whom Normans to-day so proudly 
revere. 

At this time the Norman territory was 
bounded by the Manche, the extreme limits of 



248 Rambles in Normandy 

the Cotentin, and, probably, by the rivers 
Mayenne, Sarthe, Eure, Andelle, and Bresle; 
leaving Vexin, in the southeast, a debatable 
land which was to be the scene of future 
struggles between Philippe-Auguste and Eich- 
ard Coeur de Lion and Jean-Sans-Terre. 

Eollon at this time embraced Christianity, 
and the Archbishop Frangon, who baptized him, 
obtained from his new convert large donations 
in favour of many monasteries and churches; 
among others the cathedrals of Rouen, Bayeux, 
and Evreux, and the abbeys of St. Ouen, Ju- 
mieges, and Mont St. Michel. 

From this time on the fierce pirates, the for- 
mer companions of Eollon 's dangers and 
glories, were so tractable under his will and 
the new laws which were promulgated, that 
they soon became rich and opulent. Thieving 
and brigandage disappeared, and in their place 
law and order reigned in these parts for the 
first time. 

The ^' Echiquier " was only permanently 
established at Eouen in 1499, however, and 
took the name of the Parliament of Normandy. 

Chaumont-en- Vexin, on the national road to 
Pontoise, is a delightfully picturesque hillside 
town, once a residence of the French kings who 
built a castle here to aid them in their struggles 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 249 

for the possession of Normandy. There is also 
a fifteenth-century church. 

Down the river valley, below St. Clair, are 
Berthenouville, with the remains of a mediaeval 
chateau; Dampsmesnil, to be classed in the 
same category; and Bray, the nearest railway 
station to Ecos, which has a fine Eenaissance 
chateau of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 




'A Seine Hamlet 



Some of these small towns have a remark- 
ably busy appearance on account of the manu- 
facture of zinc, which appears to be the prin- 
cipal industry of a neighbourhood otherwise 
given over solely to farming and grazing. 

On the Seine above Les Andelys, until one 
reaches Vernon, are a succession of tiny vil- 
lages and hamlets, each with its weather-worn 



250 Rambles in Normandy 

church, smoking-room, and tobacco shop, with 
an occasional large estate on its outskirts. 
Vezillon, with its bare, tumble-down, and de- 
serted church ; Bouafles, on the flank of the hill- 
side running up to the Foret des Andelys; 
Courcelles, with its church-spire and pigeon- 
loft inextricably mixed; and Port Mort, with 
its great menhir of untold age and uncertain 
origin, all surrounded by straight-furrowed 
wheat-fields, form one of the most delightful 
parts of the Seine valley. 

Opposite Les Andelys is Tosny, a river- 
side market-garden town on a hill, with a re- 
markably picturesque little aisleless church 
bearing a date over its front portal of 1817; 
but which in its framework, as one can see 
from an occasional uncovered arch and pillar, 
is distinctly Norman of many centuries ago. 

Just beyond Tosny, on the same bank, is the 
military prison-town of Gaillon, with its long 
steep hill, one of the most terrible in France 
to travellers by road ; while still further to the 
westward is Louviers, with its beautiful flam- 
boyant church, and rival hotels of more than 
ordinary provincial excellence. One is the 
" show place " of the town, with its old tim- 
bered front and its polished kitchen utensils. 
The other, the hotel of the travelling salesman, 



Pont de I'Arche to Roche-Guyon 251 

in the Grande Eue, is less picturesque, but no 
less comfortable. 

There is little enough of interest at Gaillon 
to-day, though the origin of the town dates 
from the foundation of the Gallo-Romain for- 
tress here. Gaillon was given to the Archbishop 
of Eouen by Philippe-Auguste after the con- 
quest of Normandy. In 1500 Cardinal d'Am- 
boise, the minister of Louis XII., laid the foun- 
dations of a great country-house here upon the 
foundation of the earlier fortress-chateau. It 
was one of the most splendid examples of the 
Renaissance in France, with a beautiful extent 
of sculptured decorations and furnishings, 
before it fell at the Revolution. Little remains 
to-day except a small part now built into the 
military prison. Its admirable entrance fagade 
was preserved, and has now been reerected 
in the courtyard of the Ecole des Beaux Arts 
at Paris. 

One great event Gaillon has in the course 
of each year, and that is the now famous 
" Courses de Gaillon " for the hill-climbing 
championship of the automobile world. The 
great annual event excites more interest than 
any other similar affair. It is solely for racing 
machines, unlike the Chateau Thierry event or 
the international motor-cycle race at Dourdan. 



252 Rambles in Normandy 

Even more so than the great Gordon-Bennett 
race itself, do the races at Gaillon hold the 
attention of the leaders in automobile sport; 
for it is there that the real test of power and 
reliability takes place among makers and 
drivers alike. 

The hill of Gaillon is tremendously steep, al- 
most like the side of a house. It is not of great 
length compared to some of the mountain roads 
of Dauphine and Savoie. It is not even a poor, 
rough, winding road, as is Ventoux, where a 
competitive affair was held during the present 
summer; but it is by far the stiffest climb of 
three kilometres, or a trifle more, on any of the 
great national roads of France. Usually such 
abrupt ascents or descents in France have been 
avoided, or at least lengthened and made less 
steep. 

The Gaillon hill has come to be accepted as 
the severest test an automobile can be put to 
on the main roads of France; but the rest of 
the twenty kilometres from Vernon to Pont de 
I'Arche is a superbly levelled highway. 

The roadways of France may not have that 
dainty picturesqueness of those of the south- 
ern counties of England, but their vistas are 
much more sublime and grand, and there is 
really nothing at all monotonous in long 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 253 

stretches of tree-lined, straightaway highways, 
such as abound in all the departments which 
go to make up modern France. 

The Frenchman when he visits England, as 
a party of automobilists did during the present 
year, puts it more strongly even and, of course, 
more picturesquely, when he writes: 

*' Des routes bien indiquees, mais qui, par 
leur peu de largeur en certains points et leurs 
virages brusques et a angle droit nous faisaient 
encore parfois regretter nos belles routes fran- 
gaises droites et larges. 

** L' aspect du pays n'en est cependant pas 
moins fort attrayant, rappelant avec ses verts 
cottages, ses delicieuses prairies, et les nom- 
breux troupeaux de moutons qui sillonnent les 
routes, certains coins de notre Normandie." 

It is always " our beautiful France " with a 
, Frenchman, and rightly, too. 

The real hill of Gaillon begins in the town 
itself, which is not very attractive, with its 
huge military establishment and its not very 
well-kept main street. Half-way up this main 
street, which is about as bad a bit of paving 
while it lasts as one is likely to meet in France, 
past the curiously ugly Renaissance church, 
and the one or two picturesque timbered houses 



254 Rambles in Normandy 

which the town possesses, winds the first stages 
of this famous hill. 

Singularly enough, there is no way of going 
around Gaillon, which is often the case in a 
French town which has narrow, tortuous 
streets; and, incidentally, the observation is 
here set forth that, without doubt, the next 
question with regard to civic improvements, 
which ought to occupy the attention of the au- 
thorities in all lands, is the consideration of 
some system of encircling roads or boulevards, 
which shall enable automobilists to go around 
a town. Automobilists are unquestionably the 
coming road-users, for whom legislation should 
be made. 

Continuing through the town, this great na- 
tional highway flattens itself out for a space, 
on a little plateau from which the hill takes a 
fresh start. For something over a kilometre 
it rises straight and bold; then dips, as if to 
give one an opportunity to take breath. Fi- 
nally it rises for a short, straight length in an 
ascent which must be dangerously near a 
twenty-five per cent, grade, something really 
astonishing when achieved by an automobile; 
for few railway lines in the world are laid out 
to accomplish more than one in ten. 

On the occasion of this great event last year 



Pont de TArche to Roche-G-uyon 255 

the start from the Hotel Bellevue at Les An- 
delys was something in the nature of a pious 
pilgrimage to the shrine of this comparatively 
new force — the gas achieved from the carbura- 
tion of essence a petrole. It was an early hour, 
— all tried and true automobilists know, like 
fishermen, the value of the hours just after day- 
break, — the hotel garage was all astir, and 
empty bidons, old rags, and greasy oil-tins 
littered the very dining-tables of the inn's 
pretty garden. 

It is but a short ten kilometres to Gaillon, 
and one thence to the hill; but garage accom- 
modation is limited, and the first start is at 
seven in the morning. Hence it is necessary 
to " Speed! speed! with the wings of the 
morning, ' ' as Henley puts it. 

Out by the back entrance, along the quay, 
'thence to the highroad and across the bridge 
to Port Morin, which the Prussians destroyed 
in 71; and, climbing the slope toward Tosny, 
with nothing remarkable about it but its grand 
view of the Seine and its church with the Nor- 
man doorway and pillars, — which even the 
natives don't know are Norman, because the 
restored fagade bears the date of 1817, — one 
soon leaves the sight of Petit Andelys behind, 



256 Rambles in Normandy 

though the quaint but beautiful shell of the 
Chateau Gaillard can be seen long afterward. 

Soon there is a drop down a long gentle slope, 
another flight of that same great hill on whose 
crown is St. Barbe, only reached by the direct 
road known as the big hill, and one comes at 
once to the little group of ordinary, mean little 
road-houses, dignified with the pretentious 
name of hotels, known to all travellers by the 
highroad. 

A piercing hoot and an ominous rumble — 
an automobile, of course — is heard; and the 
roadway is magically cleared, awaiting what 
is naturally supposed to be one of the partici- 
pants of the races. But it proves to be only 
the local station omnibus, whose conductor has 
adopted this up-to-date and efficacious but mis- 
leading means of making himself heard. 

As for the great hill climb itself, a report 
of it here would not — could not — differ 
greatly from those one has read of similar af- 
fairs elsewhere, save to recall that it is all up- 
hill work, and when a hundred and twenty odd 
kilometres per hour are recorded it means a 
speed of between seventy-five and eighty miles 
an hour, which on the level might be almost 
any believable rate of speed. 

The day of the hill climb is Gaillon's great 



Pont de TArche to Roche-Guyon 257 

day of the year, and when the crowd departs it 
again subsides into its usual somnolence. 
" Gaillon! elle est morte," is a saying which 
one hears in the neighbouring towns, and it is 
not hard to believe. From here to Vernon, by 
either bank, one passes nothing of note. 

United with the pretty little town of Vernon, 
with its tree-bordered quays and cafes and a 
certain restaurant famous for its matelote, is 
Vernonnet, interesting only for the relic of an 
old-time, twelfth-century chateau with two 
great coifed towers. 

Vernon is not amply endowed. Its situation 
is nearly all it has to recommend it; but its 
church is fine, and there is a cylindrical, ivy- 
hung tower that will prompt a question. It is 
the '' tour des archives/' the only remains of 
a fortified chateau built here by that Duke of 
Normandy who was Henry I. of England. 

The Chateau de Bizy, one of the most impos- 
ing Renaissance chateaux of Normandy, was 
built by the Marechal de Belisle ; and ultimately 
passed to the Comte d'Eu and the Due de Pen- 
thievre. It was mutilated during the Revolu- 
tion, as were most of the other monuments of 
France; but General Suir restored it, when it 
was presented to the Duchess d 'Orleans. 
Through the forest of Bizy, on the way to 



258 Rambles in Normandy 

Evreux, one comes upon one of those bits of 
forest-road which lend so much variety to travel 
by road in France. Literally as smooth as if 
sandpapered, almost free from dust, and lined 
on either side by trees, which shelter one from 
the sun, they form a pleasant interlude in the 
day's journey. 

Crossing the Seine, one comes to Giverny, a 
not very attractive little village of itself, but 
greatly affected by the school of impressionist 
painters who have foregathered under the ban- 
ner of Claud Monet, who lives there. This in- 
flux of artist life has made the prosperity of 
the natives who dwell in this little waterside 
town. It is really upon the Ept, a tributary of 
the Seine, distant half a mile. A hotel of more 
than ordinary pretensions has sprung up; and 
its dining-room and cafe are amply decorated 
with sketches by many whose names are al- 
ready great in the world of art. 

From Vernon, the metropolis of the Seine 
between Paris and Eouen, it is but four kilo- 
metres to Giverny, and even here one may see 
the effect of the influx of Englishmen and Amer- 
icans who annually spend the four summer 
months here. 

La Roche-Guyon forms a sort of boundary 
sentinel between the ancient domain of the 



Pont de I'Arche to Roche-Guyon 259 

Dukes of Normandy and that of the Kings of 
France. Here the Seine leaves Normandy, and 
the ruined donjon tower of the old chateau, 
and the Renaissance edifice at its base, the home 
of the La Rochefoucauld family, is the first of 
Normandy's chateaux on the way to the sea. It 
sits proudly upon the chalky promontory in 
quite an idyllic castled-crag fashion. 

The donjon of the ancient chateau was built 
in 998 by a seigneur named Guy or Gyon. This 
curious structure is approximately triangular 
on the outside, and cylindrical in its interior. 
There are also vast subterranean passages, cut 
into the rock upon which the donjon is built. 

In 1419 the English, under the Earl of War- 
wick, besieged the ancient Chateau of Roche- 
Guyon and obtained its capitulation, after hav- 
ing undermined a portion of its walls. 
, '' Guy le Bouteiller lui conseilla s'avancer 

jusqu'd sous les ramparts de faire miner 

secretement ces grottes pour faire ecrouler 
toutes les constructions qui les surplomhaient, 
et ecraser les habitants sous un monceau 
de ruines." (Chron. du Religieux de St. 
Denis.) 

One may visit the new chateau in the absence 
of the La Rochefoucauld family, and truly it is 



260 Rambles in Normandy 

worth seeing, though it has none of the really 
gorgeous appointments of its Loire compeers. 

At the entrance one reads on an iron plaque, 
which dates from 1597, and is surmounted by 
the armorial bearings of the Dukes of Eoche- 
Guyon, certain articles concerning ' ' Les droits 
d' acquit et plage deuhs aux seigneurs de Roche- 
Guy on," and beside a doorway a little further 
on, as if it were a voice of welcome, an inscrip- 
tion which reads " C'est mon plaisir." 

Near La Roche-Guyon is Haute Lisle, with a 
curious rock-cut church or chapel, like that of 
St. Adrien near Eouen, but rather more elab- 
orate. 

This completes a list of the chief sights and 
scenes of the Seine valley as it crosses Nor- 
mandy on its way from its source in the Cote 
d'Or to its juncture with salt water at Havre. 

Dumas, in ^' The Vicomte de Bragelonne," 
describes the Seine as ' ' the beautiful river 
which encloses France a thousand times in its 
loving embraces, before deciding upon joining 
its waters with the ocean. ' ' 

This is a true enough description, particularly 
with respect to its convolutions between Ver- 
non and Caudebec, where the stream sweeps 
in long untrammelled curves of a radius which 
makes the barge traffickers wish for an occa- 




I 






Pont de I'Arcbe to Roche-Gruyon 261 

sional portage of a mile or two which would 
cut off a score by river. 

Let us pray nothing will ever happen which 
will enable the river trafficker to cut the cor- 
ners. It has been estimated that an exceedingly 
moderate amount of canalization would reduce 
the distance, from Paris to the sea through 
Normandy, one-half; but by the process the 
charm of the Seine would be despoiled. In- 
stead, the long, sinuous tows of many-hued 
barges would be supplanted by high-speed 
express-boats, perhaps run by an overhead 
trolley from an electrical current transmitted 
from the shore. 

Where, then, would be the recollection of the 
vast river-borne traffic of days gone by, when 
kings and princes made their way to the coast 
cities by galleys and sailing boat, or travelled 
in carriages along its pleasant banks f Instead 
of chateaux to crown its hilltops, we would have 
towering chimney-stacks of the " power sta- 
tions," and everything would be regulated by 
clockwork and machinery. 



CHAPTEE V. 

IN THE VALLEY OF THE EUEE 

The busy little villages which lie in the 
course of the Eure from Pont de 1 'Arche to Lou- 
viers are unheard of in the school geographies 
and conventional guide-books. They have little 
appealing interest for the general traveller. 
Arthur Young, a hundred or more years ago, 
knew them when he journeyed from Rouen to 
Louviers, and they have not greatly changed 
since that day. 

By no means are they mere hamlets, though 
St. Pierre du Vauvray, St. Etienne du Vauvray, 
and one or two others are straggling enough in 
their way. With an important local railway 
junction at St. Pierre, however, there has 
grown up a traffic which has perhaps had less 
effect on the general topography round about 
than it has on the somnolence which once must 
have existed to a far greater degree than to- 
day. 

At St. Cyr du Vaudreuil one sees sawmills 

262 



In the Valley of the Eure 263 

and flour-mills grouped along the banks of the 
Eure, which here spreads itself into numerous 
branches with tree-grown islets, forming nat- 
ural piers for the bridge which belongs to that 
great national highway from Rouen to Nantes, 
known as National Road No. 162. 

From the fiirst span of this long bridge, one 
sees, up or down stream, a succession of group- 
ings of poplars and locusts growing up from 
the river bank, a tiny orchard or two, the long, 
wooded alley of larches which forms the en- 
trance to the private park on the He 1 'Homme, 
the curiously spired church of Notre Dame du 
Vaudreuil, a sluice, and a weir. There are in- 
numerable '' motives," as artists love to call 
them, for a day's, a week's, or a month's work 
of brush or pencil. 

The church of St. Cyr itself is a severe little 
building, with no decoration or ornament 
worthy of remark, though its interior is by no 
means bare or ugly. It has, furthermore, a 
charming roof of barrel-vaulted brickwork, 
which would be the pride of a more pretentious 
building. Its chief charm, however, is its mod- 
ern but exceedingly picturesque spire which 
towers above the western portal. Its slated 
peak, its ornate iron arrow, and its corniced 
shaft, all group in delightful fashion among 



264 Rambles in Normandy 

surroundings which, if not in any way luxuri- 
ous, are exceedingly lively and interesting. 
Pigeons, and even crows and swallows appar- 
ently, fly in and out quite in the romantic fash- 
ion of sentimental poetry. The wonder is that 
they have not stopped the functions of the 
clock, which in this case, with its four dials 
facing each of the four quarters, is decidedly 
less offensive than usual, and forms a charm- 
ing high light in a landscape of tender greens 
and grays. 

The two artistic and architectural glories of 
Louviers are its magnificently florid church 
and the Hotel du Grand Cerf. The Church of 
Notre Dame is a curiously hybrid structure in 
spite of the almost universal admiration be- 
stowed upon its specific ornateness; for most 
people view it from only one side, that which 
has all the liveliness of the late Grothic era, or 
even later, for Eenaissance details have crept 
in here and there, which will not allow it to 
rank with St. Maclou at Rouen, the peer of 
its class. 

Eenaissance details are seldom beautiful in 
conjunction with Gothic of any form, and when 
mixed with the latest variety which took dis- 
tinguishable form are the more to be regretted, 




Hotel dii Grand Cerf, Loiiviers 



In the Valley of the Eure 265 

if one admires it in its purity, as it sometimes 
does exist, though very infrequently. 

Some will not admit the beauty of Eenais- 
sance details at all. Certainly it is open to 
objection in a northern clime, regardless of 
how successfully the importation has been de- 
veloped in architecture other than great 
churches. Here, however, in this singularly 
effective church at Louviers, it hangs like a 
parasite on buttress, lintel, and wall; not ob- 
trusively, indeed, at a distance it is hardly 
distinguishable, but it is there, nevertheless, 
and taints the whole structure like the blight 
on a blossoming tree. Notre Dame de Lou- 
viers is a conglomerate structure, with the 
palm going to its severe, simple north tower 
and fagade, in spite of the effectiveness of the 
more florid south front. 

Not even in the Low Countries, or at Noyon 
in Picardy, where is that dignified and im- 
posing early Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame, 
is there to be found a more impressive and 
elegant flanking west tower tha3 here. Its 
graceful windows look bleak, boarded up or 
filled with stonework; but this was not for 
ornament, or they might as well have been 
left bare. It was probably for strength, tem- 
porary or permanent, in the expectation that 



266 Rambles in Normandy 

some day an ornate spire would be added, 
which might rival even that of Texier 's at Char- 
tres. Such was not to be, however. Nothing 
happened but a sudden desire to ornament 
the western porch and fagade, in the sixteenth 
century; and so the edifice stands to-day, not 
a solitary example of such work ; for one must 
not forget the cathedral at Evreux or that as- 
tonishing and freaklike Church of St. Gervais 
at Gisors near by, but one which is all the more 
sympathetic and agreeable because of the jux- 
taposition of the contrasting styles. The inte- 
rior is interesting, but by no means to the same 
extent as the exterior, though the general ef- 
fect is one of genial warmth and luxury. 

The Eure, though not a great river, is a very 
beautiful one; and, in spite of being not well- 
known, is a very useful stream to the manu- 
factories along its banks. It is tributary to 
the Seine, and properly belongs to the water- 
shed of its larger parent. It flows nearly 
northward through Anet and Acquigny, and 
the little metropolis of Louviers, till its junc- 
ture with the Seine at Pont de I'Arche makes 
them one, so far as navigation is concerned, 
from Pont de I'Arche to Louviers. 

One remarks the many tall chimneys of the 
cloth-factories of Louviers, of which Arthur 



In the Valley of the Eure 267 

Young wrote in the year 1787. With letters 
of introduction he had come to visit one of the 
leading manufacturers of a cloth then thought 
to be the superior of any woollen in the world. 
*' Perfection goes no further than the Vigona 
cloths of M. Decretot," said the genial travel- 
ler. 

At Louviers the Eure divides into many 
branches and flows through the town in quite 
a Dutch-canal fashion. Louviers is both a new 
and an old town. The first in stone and brick 
housing the great cloth-factories on the water's 
edge ; while the second in stone and wood sur- 
rounds the magnificent Church of Notre Dame, 
and the old market-place where on Saturdays 
is to be seen a most extensive and picturesque 
display. 

Louviers suffered greatly in the '' Hundred 
^Years' War "; and the English invaded it in 
1418, condemning to death 120 merchants 
chosen from the wealthy residents of the town. 
Even then it sheltered many cloth-manufactur- 
ing establishments whose products were in 
great repute and demand at all of the great 
fairs of the middle ages. In later days the 
prices of the manufactured goods have low- 
ered; but the quality of the product of Lou- 
viers has always remained of the best, A trip 



268 Rambles in Normandy 

up the valley of the Eure, from Pont de I'Arche 
to its rise near the southern boundary of Nor- 
mandy and on up the valley of the Avre, will 
be wholly a new experience to many. It is 
not a magnificent stream, but it is a most in- 
dustrious one, and turns numerous mill-wheels 
and waters a considerable section of the plain 
of Upper Normandy west of the Seine. 

Damps, St. Cyr, Louviers, Acquigny, and 
Pacy are comparatively well-known, at least 
by users of the roadway, even if they do not 
stop over. The rich charms of many of the 
smaller places are, however, quite generally 
ignored. 

Acquigny has in its church some remarkable 
wood-carvings and some valuable reliquaries. 
In the cemetery is a chapel, built over the 
tombs of St. Maure and St. Venerand, who 
were martyrized in the sixth century. There 
is also a chateau of the time of Francois I. 

Next is Heudreville, with a diminutive 
church in part Eomanesque; and at Croix 
St. Leufroy are the remains of the Abbey of 
Croix, founded in 788, and built into the fif- 
teenth and sixteenth century parish church, 
in which are also the ancient baptismal fonts 
from the same edifice. 

At Autheuil-Authouillet is a church with 



In the Valley of the Eure 269 

some good wood-carvings and ancient statues. 
It has, too, a fifteenth-century churchyard 
cross. 

Chambray is of little enough note historic- 
ally, except for an unimposing chateau of the 
time of Henri IV. ; but " its modern-looking, 
though undeniably and romantically environed, 
mill is one of those reminders of times, all but 
disappeared, before the advance of steam and 
electricity, which will appeal to artists and all 
lovers of travel. 

If an artist could find accommodation in 
some wayside tavern, which is doubtful, as 
Pacy-sur-Eure, ten kilometres away, is the 
nearest centre of population — if a tiny place 
of two thousand souls can be so called — where 
such might be found, he would find view-points 
and colour-schemes enough to last him a fort- 
-night, unless he worked with the rapidity of a 
Turner. 

Just before reaching Pacy-sur-Eure one 
comes to Jouy-Cocherel, — and most likely 
passes it with a rush ; for the roadway, though 
not a national road, is of that superlative ex- 
cellence which often induces the traveller, if 
on a motor-car, to keep the pace until some 
untoward thing stops him. 

The fifteenth-century church is all that it 



270 Rambles in Normandy 

should be, but the near-lying hamlet of Co- 
cherel claims the predominant historical inter- 
est. It was here in 1364 that the redoubtable 
Duguesclin vanquished the combined troops of 
the Kings of England and Navarre, and made 
prisoner the great captain, Jean de Grailly, 
after his rear-guard was cut to pieces by the 
French cavalry. 

This feat of arms is commemorated by a 
monument erected near the banks of the Eure. 

Menilles, almost up with Pacy, has an at- 
tractive church whose portal bears some most 
acceptable statuettes of the time of Louis XII. 
There is also a sixteenth-century chateau, most 
delightfully placed high above the roadway. 

Pacy-sur-Eure is in itself hardly an attrac- 
tion for the tourist; but it is his only chance 
for a square meal such as automobilists and 
cyclists demand, between Louviers and Ev- 
reux; and its hotel, the Lion d'Or, is writ down 
in the books of many as one of those enjoy- 
able and unexpected tables d'hote which one 
so frequently comes across in the open coun- 
try of France. 

Pacy is the head of canal-boat and barge 
traffic on the Eure, and achieves something of 
importance from this enterprise; but other- 
wise, save for a most excellent automobile 



In the Valley of the Eure 271 

garage and a book-store which would delight 
the inhabitants of an English or American 
town of twenty times the size of Pacy, there 
is not much else of commerce to be noted. 

The church dates from the twelfth, thir- 
teenth, and fourteenth centuries, and was built 
upon a still more ancient foundation, so far 
lost in antiquity that its date is unknown. 

In July, 1793, General de Puisaye, at the 
head of the Revolutionists, was defeated in a 
battle here by the troops of the National Con- 
vention. 

Onward, toward the source of the Eure, one 
passes, by a gently rolling highroad, Hecourt, 
Breuilpont, and Lorey; unremarkable except 
for the natural beauties of their situation and 
the surrounding country. Where the roadway 
rises just beyond Pacy one gets a delightful 
view of the river valley known as the ' ' Circuit 
of the Eure." Here the not very ample 
stream winds in and out among the tall pop- 
lars in the same sinuous curves made famous 
by the memories of the celebrated vale of 
Cashmere, the broad river-bottom itself 
stretching out on either side a half-dozen 
miles, and leaving the silver stream a tiny 
thread running through the centre. It is a 



272 Rambles in Normandy 

truly idyllic picture, and full of the sentiment 
which artists love. 

Bueil is hardly more than a railway junc- 
tion, where the line for Cherbourg and Brest 
divides; and at G-arennes, an unassuming 
little village, the highroad crosses to the oppo- 
site river bank by a small bridge, from which 
one gets a delightful outlook up and down 
stream. Numerous water-mills are scattered 
here and there through the meadow-land, and 
there is an aspect of mechanical industry, 
which is astonishing to one whose conception 
of a factory is a great building of brick, with 
many windows and a towering chimney-stack 
as its chief and visible signs of usefulness. 
At Giarennes one may see the trenches of the 
camp occupied by the Due de Mayenne at the 
battle of the Ligeurs, at Ivry, in the last years 
of the sixteenth century. 

Before one reaches Anet is Ivry-la-Bataille, 
a place name that conjures up much of history, 
though the great battle itself took place five 
kilometres away, in the neighbourhood of 
Epieds. 

A column, first erected by Henri IV. and re- 
built by Napoleon I., marks the spot where the 
battle was fought on March 4, 1590. In the 
chronicles one reads specifically that it marks 



In the Valley of the Eure 273 

the exact location of the tent of the victor 
" au panache blanc.^^ 

Ivry-la-Bataille has a thousand inhabitants, 
and a mere roadside tavern which rejoices in 
the grand name of Hotel St. Martin. There 
are still remains of its ancient triple moat and 
fortifications, which date from the time of 
Louis the Fat and Philippe- Auguste, when the 
town was of vastly more importance than it 
has ever been since. 

In 1418 the place was taken by Talbot, in 
1424 by the Duke of Bedford, and in 1449 by 
Count Dunois, who demolished the fortifica- 
tions. 

Up to his time the name was Ivry-la-Chaus- 
see, but since the great victory here of Henri 
IV. against the League, in 1590, it has been 
known as Ivry-la-Bataille. 

Near the southern boundary of the ancient 
province of Normandy, in the valley of the 
Eure, is the Chateau of Anet, Delorme's fa- 
mous masterpiece, built for the winsome Diane 
de Poitiers, whose husband was once Seneschal 
of Normandy, in spite of the fact that her own 
name was evolved from the family estates in 
Poitou. 

It was in 1552 that Delorme laid out the 
general plan of this magnificent Renaissance 



274 Rambles in Normandy 

work, of which the wonderful portal and one 
wing yet remain. The rest was destroyed in 
the fury of the Revolution. Jean Goujon, the 
most famous of the Renaissance sculptors of 
France, lent his aid; and the arabesques and 
window decorations of Jean Cousin are, like 
the contributions of his contemporaries, in- 
comparable. 

This chateau was the pet and pride of the 
attractive and unfortunate Diane. It was also 
a favourite resting-place of Henri II., who 
often sojourned here. La Fontaine wrote, 
presumably on the strength of having been 
invited there: 

" par Tordre d'ApoUon 
Transportent dans Anet tout le sacre vallon ; 
Je le crois ; puissions-nous chanter sous les ombrages 
Des arbres dont ce lieu va border ces rivages." 

The susceptible Henri II. gave the new 
structure to the winsome Diane after her fas- 
cinations had been rejected by his father, 
Frangois I. Diane must have had a sincere 
attachment for the family, or was able to con- 
vince the son that she had, to have acquired 
this magnificent establishment, now greatly 
remodelled, but still showing the outlines of 
the original chateau and many remains which 
are more than fragmentary. It is one of the 



In the Valley of the Eure 275 

best works of the architect, Philibert Delorme. 
The portal, which is magnificent, one wing of 
the present chateau, and the chapel are the 
relics left to-day of the original structure. 

Art lovers will recall the celebrated statue 
known as '' La Diane," by Jean Goujon, one 
of the few authenticated works of this six- 
teenth-Century genius of sculpture. This statue 
formerly occupied the centre of the Court of 
Honour of the Chateau d'Anet. It was all 
but destroyed when the rest of the chateau 
suffered at the Eevolution; and, though in 
fragments, was sold to some one who placed 
it for safe-keeping in the Musee des Petits- 
Augustins at Paris. In 1818 the group was 
inherited by the Due d 'Orleans, but Louis 
XVIII. acquired it for the Louvre by giving in 
exchange the statue of '^ Ajax Defying the 
G4)ds." 

The group, of course, had its inception in 
the mythological story of Diana ; but since the 
court charmer herself was a huntress of repute, 
it was but natural for Goujon to have modelled 
the features upon that of Henri's favourite. 
This has frequently been denied or ignored, 
though it seems plausible; and, when one 
notes the features and the coiffure, he finds 
them distinctly French, not Greek. 



276 Rambles in Normandy 

Diane, nude, is posed nonchalantly, her right 
arm around the neck of a superb deer whose 
antlers have six branches and who crouches 
on the ground beside her. In her left arm 
Diane bears a golden bow, and her hair is gar- 
landed with pearls. The two dogs, Procion 
and Syrius, are playing beside her; and the 
whole grouping and execution is of a' superb 
fidelity to nature, and must undoubtedly al- 
ways remain as the most typical example of 
the best of French sculpture of the epoch of 
the Eenaissance. 

The daughter of Jean de Poitiers, Comte de 
St. Vallier, of the Valentinois counts, was born 
Sept. 3, 1499. Her biographers have in the 
main been flatterers, but it is generally ad- 
mitted that she was a precocious child. At any 
rate, her education was considerable even for 
her time. 

Diane married Louis de Breze, whose pater- 
nal home was at Anet and who had previously 
espoused Catherine de Dreux, at the tender 
age of sixteen years. De Breze, or De Dreux- 
Breze as he had become by his former mar- 
riage, was then fifty-five years of age, so per- 
haps there is some cause for the winsome 
Diane's lack of constancy. She had secured 
from FranQois I. the release of her father, who 



In the Valley of the Eure 277 

had been imprisoned for complicity in the 
Bourbon affair, — a circumstance unknow- 
ingly, it has been said, brought about by 
Diane's husband himself. 

It was on a certain occasion at Amboise, 
when the nobles attached to the court were 
awaiting the pleasure of Francois as to 
whether or not he would hunt that morning, 
that we read one of the earliest references to 
Diane. The Comte de Saint-Vallier had just 
given the signal for departure when Margue- 
rite d'Alengon addressed the father of Diane 
as follows: 

'' M. le Comte, tell me, when is the court to 
be graced by the presence of your incompa- 
rable daughter, Madame Diane, Grande Sene- 
schale of Normandy? " 

' ' Madame, ' ' said Saint-Vallier, ' ' her hus- 
band, M. de Breze, is much occupied in his dis- 
tant government. Diane is young, much 
younger than her husband. The court, ma- 
dame, is dangerously full of temptations to the 
young. ..." 

'^ We lose a bright jewel by her absence," 
replied Marguerite. 

Saint-Vallier had by no means any business 
to mix himself up in the Bourbon melee, and 
sorry enough he was for it ultimately. 



278 Rambles in Normandy 

Bourbon had fled to Spain, ultimately to take 
the field against his royal master, Frangois, in 
Italy, and the Comte de Saint- Vallier was the 
principal aid in his flight and his chief accom- 
plice. What his reward was to be no one 
knows. 

" Saint- Vallier a conspirator, too! " said 
Fran§ois, when told of the affair. ' ' What ! 
the captain of my archers? That strikes us 
hard. Well, I am sorry for Jean de Poitiers." 

*' Are the proofs certain? ..." 

" Jean de Poitiers, my ci-devant captain of 
the guards, is the father of a charming lady. 
Madame Diane, the Seneschale of Normandy, 
is an angel, though her husband, De Breze, — 
why, he is a monster. The old story, my lords, 
— Vulcan and Venus." 

In due time Diane appears at the court. ' ' A 
lady, deeply veiled, who desires to speak with 
his Majesty alone," she is announced. 

'' By St. Denis," says the king, '' who is 
she? " 

" I think, Sire," says the page, ''it is the 
wife of the Grand Seneschal of Normandy." 

*' Well, it does not surprise me," says the 
king. '' When her father got himself into this 
mess, I assumed she would intercede for him." 

* ' Diane entered, ' ' — quoting from a con- 



In the Valley of the Eure 279 

temporary account, — ' ' her head covered with 
a deep veil. ' ' She weeps, but her beauty shines 
radiantly through her tears. She is exquisitely 
fair and wonderfully fresh, with golden hair 
and dark eyebrows. 

'' Pardon, Sire," she cries, ^' pardon my 
father. He is too old for punishment, and has 
hitherto been true to your Majesty." 

' ' At any rate, madame, ' ' said Frangois, ' * he 
is blessed with a most surpassing daughter. 
Mercy, Madame Diane, is a royal prerogative, 
but beauty is most potent. "Will you, fair lady, 
exercise your prerogative and lend your pres- 
ence to my court? . . . Then I declare your 
father pardoned, even though he had rent the 
crown from off my head." 

Diane thus left Normandy and became one 
of the shining lights of the beauty-loving court 
of Frangois I., though, as history tells, she was 
not able to exercise her wiles to any great ex- 
tent upon the monarch himself. Indeed he soon 
forsook her when she laid herself out to fas- 
cinate the feeble Henri, the king's son, — a task 
which was not difficult or slow of consumma- 
tion. 

Her devotion to Frangois was not returned, 
at least not ardently, though Frangois is known 
to have visited the De Breze home on three 



280 Rambles in Normandy 

occasions, as royal ordinances were signed or 
dated from there in 1528, 1531, and 1543. 

If Diane did not succeed to her liking with 
the father, she made a quick progress with the 
son, the Due d 'Orleans, who later was to be- 
come Henri II. ; for he ' ' broke a lance in her 
honour " at a tourney, thus constituting him- 
self her chevalier, though at the time the youth 
owned to but fifteen years. 

It was in 1536 that Diane de Poitiers almost 
literally captured Henri, who had become the 
husband of Catherine de Medici. Catherine 
could do nothing except ally herself with the 
Duchesse d'Etampes, who, even at the time of 
the lance-breaking, was a self -constituted rival 
of Diane. It was indeed the tragedy of Cath- 
erine's position that it was considered beneath 
the dignity of tragedy. She, the wife of the 
future King of France, hardly acknowledged 
herself worthy of rivalry with this huntress, 
who was also able to woo with all the artifice 
of that terrible new Platonism. The Duchesse 
d'Etampes, with her ^' Petite Bande " and her 
alliance with the G-uises and the Connetable 
Montmorency, was able to give battle to this 
upstart, but Catherine herself could only look 
on. There was a time, some ten years after 
her marriage, when Frangois actually medi- 



In the Valley of the Eure 281 

tated her divorce from Henri. Catherine, now 
Dauphine, still remained without children, and, 
at a great family council, Diane de Poitiers 
persuaded the king that a separation of the hus- 
band and wife was the only wise course. 

Catherine appealed to Frangois I. She had, 
she said, heard of what had been proposed. It 
was for Frangois to decide. Catherine wept 
during this appeal, and the king, who disliked 
tears, decided in her favour. Diane was de- 
feated, and the Dauphine won one of her few 
triumphs against her insolent rival. Curiously 
enough, however, when, in 1543, a son was at 
last born to Catherine, it was Diane de Poi- 
tiers, robed in the black and white of her 
widowhood, — De Breze having died at Anet, 
aged seventy-two years, — who received the lit- 
tle being into the world, and constituted herself 
the nurse of the mother. It was surely no won- 
der that Catherine, in spite of all her verbal 
gratitude, retained '' une plaie fort saignante 
au cceur." 

A considerable advantage had already ac- 
crued to the fair Diane ; for, when the Dauphin 
died in 1536, the Due Henri d 'Orleans, lover of 
Diane, became the heir presumptive to the 
crown. 

Finally, in 1847, Frangois I. died, and Diane 



282 Rambles in Normandy- 

first came into her real power. Catherine was 
neglected, and the vindictive Anne de Pisselen, 
Duchesse d'Etampes, exiled to the Chateau of 
St. Bris. The historians speak of the death of 
Francois " as having released one long-sup- 
pressed individuality, that of the Dauphin." 
The case of Catherine, however, was even 
harder than before. The sullen boy, her hus- 
band, had become a man under the tutelage of 
Diane, and silently Catherine had noted his 
mental growth. 

She wrote to the Connetable Montmorency: 
^' I know full well that I must not have the 
happiness of being near him, which makes me 
wish that you had my place and I yours so 
long as the war lasts ; and that I could do him 
as much service as you have done." Catherine 
served her husband well as a diplomatist in 
Paris, and Henri learned to respect her intelli- 
gence, though he never gave her a fraction of 
his heart. Always between him and her there 
was one woman, Diane de Poitiers, Grande 
Seneschale de Eouen, Duchesse de Valentinois. 
Diane was seventeen years older than Henri II., 
but the spell that she held over him had always 
been extraordinary. 

The favours to come to Diane were meantime 
not long delayed. Her seigneury at Anet was 



In the Valley of the Eure 283 

contested, and Henri, by the right of kings, 
decided it in her favour. He gave her the mag- 
nificent chateau at Chenonceaux on the Loire, 
and the duchy of the Valentinois, to which he 
added '' sums considerable," say the chron- 
iclers. 

With this money Diane set about to construct 
the Chateau of Anet anew. Bearing in mind 
the memory of her former husband, Diane per- 
mitted only decorations in black and white, and 
Henri himself was led to adopt the same as 
his own colours. Henri came frequently to 
Anet, where one part of the chateau was re- 
served for him, and decorated, curiously 
enough, with the cipher and arms of himself 
and his queen Catherine. 

These visits of her royal master were the 
cause of great expenditures on the part of 
Diane. In one year alone they rose above four 
hundred thousand francs. When one adds to 
this the expenditure of the construction and 
ornamentation of the chateau, one gets some 
idea of the disbursements of the public treas- 
ury on behalf of a royal favourite. Henri re- 
fused nothing to his mistress. 

Diane by this time possessed ten estates in 
France, besides the duchy of Etampes and a 



284 Rambles in Normandy 

hotel in Paris, . which had also been the prop- 
erty of her ancient rival. 

It was the curse of Catherine, whose own 
life was one long period of dissimulation, to 
see her husband's mistress successful mainly 
by reason of sincerity. It was terrible for this 
woman, who, however decadent, stood for the 
culture and the traditions of the Italian Ee- 
naissance, to be set aside easily, contemptuously 
even, by one whose pose it was to stand for 
what was national in the French offshoot of the 
Renaissance. 

Around Diane at Anet there circled a bril- 
liant group of poets and architects and sculp- 
tors, who were all Frenchmen. Such men as 
these made Anet a resplendent citadel of the 
French Renaissance; and Diane, the typical 
Frenchwoman, was well equipped to play the 
part she had chosen. Her palace was indeed 
a kind of Thelema, — the home of nature and 
of intellect, of beauty and of ease. Rabelais 
would have wandered there content, nor would 
Diane have been too refined to laugh at his 
jokes with the true Gallic spirit. To her, as 
to her fellows, gaiety was more necessary than 
delicacy. 

The later history of Diane all students and 
lovers of French history well know, but the 



In the Valley of the Eure 285 

Chateau of Anet stands to-day as a monument 
to her memory, more closely identified with her 
personality than even Chenonceaux on the 
Loire. 

One may visit its apartments on Thursdays 
and Sundays in July of each year, through the 
courtesy of the present proprietor ; and a per- 
sonal acquaintance therewith is a thing to 
awaken a new interest in the life and times of 
Diane de Poitiers, one of the most famous of 
all the favourites of Kings of France. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PAYS DE CAUX 



The whole coast-line northeast from Havre 
to the borders of Picardy is a delightful suc- 
cession of villages and towns where the salt 
smell of the sea mingles with the odours of wild 
flowers. 

Along the fringe of the coast itself the water- 
ing-places crowd close one upon the other, from 
the more ambitious resorts of Dieppe, Fecamp, 
Etretat, and Treport, with their casinos and 
conventional amusements, to the quiet and 
tranquil little villages such as Yport, Petites 
Dalles, St. Valery en Caux, and Berneval, 
which possess quite all the advantages of the 
larger and more frequented resorts, so far as 
the charm of prospect goes, with none of their 
drawbacks. 

From Havre to Etretat one rises to a grass- 
grown, chalky height, which extends quite all 
the distance to the famous " picture-rocks " of 
the latter place. 

Just after leaving Havre, on the heights 

286 



The Pays de Gaux 



287 





•§ K] 



288 Rambles in Normandy 



which seemingly hang so perilously above the 
city itself are the Phares de la Heve, two great 
quadrangular towers which were built in 1775. 
The larger of the towers has a flash-light in its 
lantern which is visible at sea a distance of 
fifty-one miles in clear weather. Between the 
two is situated one of those gaunt, long-armed 
semaphores, like Don Quixote's windmill, with 
which the coast of France is so plentifully sup- 
plied. They are the forerunners of the wire- 
less telegraphy of to-day, and certainly serve 
their purpose admirably. 

To Montivilliers, somewhat back from the 
coast, one passes the modern Chateau of Col- 
moulins, built after the style of the Renais- 
sance, whose chatelain possesses, it is said, 
many fine pictures by old masters and the can- 
opied bed in which hath once slept France's 
great admiral, Jean Bart. Through the valley 
runs a charming little river called the Legarde. 

The old-time pigeon-house attached to a 
great house or in a barn-yard is a frequent 
sight in Normandy. Usually it was a great, 
isolated round tower, large enough, one would 
think, to shelter thousands of pigeon families. 
That of the manor-house of Ango at Varenge- 
ville is one of the most curious of all, while 
St. Ouen at Rouen had, in the sixteenth century, 



The Pays de Caux 



289 



one cruciform in shape, whose lower regions 
formed a cellar, the ground floor a poultry- 
house, and above was an open hanger or place 
for storing hay and grain. 




A Pigeon - house 

Montivilliers, which is reached by electric 
cars from Havre, possesses a church which is 
a relic of a strong foundation dating from 682. 
The abbey was instituted by St. Philibert of 



290 Rambles in Normandy 

Jumieges, and still other of the conventual 
buildings have now been incorporated into a 
local brewery, if such a degradation may be 
mentioned. The Cemetery of Brise Garet, with 
its surrounding galleries in sculptured wood 
representing funeral subjects, is decidedly 
unique, and quite well worth making the jour- 
ney from Havre to see. The library of this 
small and wholly unimportant town of Caux 
has a collection of ten thousand volumes, all 
relating to the history of Normandy, as well 
as many precious manuscripts of the middle 
ages. It should form a vast treasure-house for 
some modern historian. 

At St. Jouin, which is almost a suburb of 
Etretat, is the Hotel de Paris, whose chate- 
laine was, in the days of the elder Dumas, 
known as "La belle Ernestine." In 1865, 
Dumas fashioned the following portrait of her 
in verse, which, to say the least, seems rather 
free speech: 

" Son esprit est comme ses hanches 
H est souple et toujours bondit, 
Et comme elle a les dents blanches 
Elle rit de tout ce qu'on dit." 

Dumas fils followed with: 

«< Mais si vous croyez qu'elle m'aime 
Vous vous trompez completement." 



The Pays de Caux 291 

Finally, Wallon, the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion, wrote ten years later : 

" GrifEoner ici quelque chose 
Pour la belle Ernestine oh ! non 1 
II y faudrait mettre une rose. 
Je n'y puis mettre qu'un." 

The town itself is but a little fishing village 
of a thousand or more inhabitants, but luncheon 
in the dining-room of Madame Ernestine Au- 
bourg's little inn is to enjoy a feast for the eyes 
and mind as well as the inner man. The walls 
are hung with paintings, sketches, and auto- 
graph letters. Among the latter are those of 
Isabella II., Queen of Spain, Castelar, Offen- 
bach, Suzanne Brohau, and Dumas. The paint- 
ings are by Lambert, Picou Hamon, Maurice 
Courant, Corot, Yvon, Becon, Olivie, Landelle 
pere, and many others. 

' Etretat, with its falaises, its bains de mer, 
and accessory attractions, has lost some of its 
former vogue with the throng of rank and fash- 
ion, but it is still as charming as ever, and, 
though solitude is a scarce commodity there 
to-day, there are really grand outlooks to be 
had, which might inspire poets and painter 
alike, as of yore, did they not mind the rush 
of automobiles and the distractions of the ca- 
sino and its crowds. 



292 Rambles in Normandy 

The history of Etretat points to the fact that 
it was once the most famous resort on the north 
coast of Europe; but it is now surpassed by 
Trouville-Deauville and Ostend, which have 
been taken up by society, to the financial, 
though not artistic, detriment of Etretat. 

The first bathers, the local chronicles will 
tell one, arrived 1803, In 1844 the old Mare- 
chal de Grouchy came to Etretat, and Al- 
phonse Karr contributed to the popularity of 
the place at about the same time by laying there 
the scene of his romances, " Vendredi Soir '* 
and *' Le Chemin le Plus Court." Karr really 
was responsible for the great popularity which 
Etretat had as a watering-place at one tim*. 
He wrote further in its praises thus: 

'' Etretat is a new province which either I 
or the painters Le Pottevin and Isabey have 
discovered. I am as Americus Vespucius to 
Christopher Columbus or Daguerre to Niepece. 
I nearly called it by my own name. ... I 
talked so much about Etretat that I made it 
the mode, . . . but to-day it has become merely 
a branch of Asnieres." 

Isabey may be said to have been the first 
painter to discover Etretat. After him came 
Le Pottevin and Mozin; then an Englishman 
named Stanfield, and since then no one shall 



The Pays de Caux 293 

say how many artists have made its chalky 
cliffs and pebbly beaches their own. 

From all this one might think that Etretat 
was essentially modern in all respects; but it 
existed in the epoque romain, and its name ap- 
peared, in a charter of 1024 given to the abbey 
of St. Wandrille, as Estrutat. 

The chief attraction of Etretat, outside its 
delightful situation and its conventional amuse- 
ments, is its fine Church of Notre Dame of the 
eleventh to thirteenth centuries; really a de- 
lightful old edifice, which, taken in conjunction 
with the gaieties of the summer life of the town, 
seems sadly out of place. 

The whole neighbourhood round about 
abounds in delicious wooded hills and valleys 
running through openings in the cliff to the sea, 
often with a tiny, transparent rivulet clasped 
closely in its embrace. 

Here is Guy de Maupassant's charming de- 
scription of one of these delightful Norman 
valleys, which for fidelity and picturesqueness 
of phrasing could hardly be improved upon: 

'' From Dieppe to Havre the coast presents 
an uninterrupted face of cliff about three hun- 
dred feet high and as straight and smooth as 
a wall. Now and then, where there is an abra- 
sure in the cliff, a little valley descends from 



294 Rambles in Normandy 

the well-wooded and perhaps cultivated pla- 
teau behind. Sometimes this little ravine re- 
sembles the bed of a torrent; and sometimes 
a little village settles itself in one of these self- 
same valleys. 

'' I have passed a summer here in one of 
these ravines which faced the sea, lodged at 
the house of a peasant. From my windows I 
could see a vast triangle of blue framed by the 
green sides of the valley, dotted now and then 
with white sails glittering brilliantly in the sun- 
light." 

There is a very considerable portion of the 
Normandy coast (and that of Brittany as well) 
which has just this aspect. The rivers, curi- 
ously enough, with the exception of the Seine, 
are not navigable. They are simply little rivers 
which carry off a certain amount of surplus 
water from the table-land above. Some of 
these have gone dry; hence the gorges or ra- 
vines which exist so very numerously along the 
Norman coast. They are truly delightful, and 
by no means have they become tourist-worn 
or denuded of idyllic charm. 

From Etretat to Fecamp, which is a veritable 
metropolis compared to the former, is but a 
dozen kilometres as the crow flies, though the 



The Pays de Caux 295 

windings of the road as it nears Fecamp add 
six or eight more. 

Yport lies between, and is what the French 
call a '' petit bain familial." It is a pictur- 
esque fishing port as well, and much nicer than 
either Etretat or Fecamp, the first of which 
smells of automobiles, and the second of Bene- 
dictine. It has a casino, too, but it is not pre- 
tentious and offers a sort of homoeopathic 
amusement quite suited to French mammas 
and their strictly guarded daughters. 

Fecamp is a historic town and the first deep- 
sea fishing port in France. 

Sixteen hundred men and sixteen thousand 
tons of shipping are engaged in the Newfound- 
land fisheries out of Fecamp. The ships depart 
for the Grand Banks in March and return in 
September, when their crews lay up their great 
Si3hooners, and equip their two hundred odd 
boats for the herring and mackerel season in 
the North Sea. And so the round of the year 
goes on in the fishing port of Fecamp, cease- 
lessly but profitably, and whether the Fecam- 
pois is hailing a Gloucester schooner on the 
banks, or passing observations on the weather 
with a Yarmouth trawler in the North Sea, he 
is always the good - natured, hard - working 
Frenchman that one sees in all the Norman and 



296 Rambles in Normandy 

Breton seaports ; for there is none of the lais- 
str-aller of the Mediterranean fisherman in his 
make-np. 

In the middle ages the belief that the relic 
of the Precious Blood of the Saviour had been 
brought here by a mysterious craft, and landed 
on the coast at the ancient settlement which 
bore the Latin name of Fiscamnum, was the 
cause from which grew up the ancient monas- 
tery for women founded by St. Waneng in 660. 
In time this establishment became an abbey 
for men, through the means of the monk Guil- 
laume of Dijon. 

To this abbey was attached a great and flour- 
ishing school which endured until the thirteenth 
century. 

The Maison Morillon in the Quartier de 
I'Hospice is built up of relics from the old 
abbey demolished in 1802, and the Abbaye de 
la Trinity, with its church dating from 1125-75, 
is indeed of quite the first rank, though modern 
restorations have vulgarized it almost beyond 
belief. 

The name Fecamp is also familiar to lovers 
of Benedictine, that subtle liqueur invented by 
the monk Wincelli. 

Leaving the coast, one finds Cany, a leading 
town of the district, at the mouth of the little 



The Pays de Caux 297 

river Durdent, a dozen kilometres from Veu- 
lettes. The little town sits in a delightfully- 
wooded valley and possesses a fine sixteenth- 
century church. In the kitchen of the Hotel 
du Connnerce is one of those rare architectural 
or decorative accessories that one comes across 
now and then in out-of-the-way places, — a 
great armorial chimnej^iece which dates from 
1624. 

The market is one of the most lively in all 
the Pays de Caux, and is frequented by large 
numbers of folk from the country-side and 
neighbouring towns. 

On the coast are Grandes and Petites Dalles, 
small places where the bathing is the chief at- 
traction of the visitor. They are surrounded, 
however, by the most beautifully rustic wood- 
land country it is possible to imagine. 
, Veulettes partakes of much the same char- 
acteristics, except that this little town of three 
hundred odd inhabitants possesses a somewhat 
apocryphal legend all its own. " Formerly," 
according to the legend, "^ there existed here 
an important town built upon the sands, at the 
mouth of the river Durdent, known as * la 
grande ville de Durdent,'* which one day was 
engulfed by the sands or overflowed by the 
waves, and so disappeared from view." 



298 Rambles in Normandy 

St. Valery-en-Caux is a veritable metropolis 
for these parts. It contains, perhaps, four 
thousand souls, and has grown up from an 
ancient settlement which surrounded a monas- 
tery founded here by St. Valery, who also 
erected another similar establishment, some 
leagues up the coast at the mouth of the Somme 
in Picardy, known as St. Valery-sur-Somme. 

Both the ancient fishing port, which was 
also established here, and the town which 
hugged the old monastery in its grasp, grew 
to some considerable prominence, but were 
stunted by the wars of the fourteenth, fifteenth, 
and sixteenth centuries, only recovering their 
prosperity by the aggrandizement caused by 
the accession of the fisherfolk of Veules, who 
had been driven away from their own homes 
by the encroachments of the sea. 

Of late years the usual watering-place ten- 
dencies have developed; and a casino has 
sprung up which draws a floating summer 
population of some hundreds of strangers from 
June to September. 

Notre Dame de Bon Port is St. Valery 's 
chief ecclesiastical monument. It dates from 
the sixteenth century only, but has a remark- 
able wooden vaulted roof and two thirteenth- 
century pillars, and arches built into its portal. 



The Pays de Caux 299 



The Maison Henri IV. (1549), so called be- 
cause of having been the lodging-place of that 
turncoat monarch, is perhaps the other chief 
architectural curiosity. It is a typical Eenais- 
sance house with some finely sculptured wood- 
work. In the quarter known as the town is 
a Renaissance cross and a slate roofing over 
the ruins of the priory founded, perhaps, by 
St. Valery. 

On the road to Dieppe, beyond St. Valery, is 
Veules-les-Roses, most picturesquely and eu- 
phoniously named. It has but 760 inhabitants, 
many of its fisherfolk having removed to 
Dieppe, where they settled in the quarter known 
to-day as Petit Veules. 

Dieppe all cross-channel travellers well 
know. It is a great port of entry, a watering- 
place, a fishing port, and a city of shops and 
'industries, all of considerable magnitude. Its 
attractions for all classes are many and varied, 
and no attempt is made to catalogue them here. 
To the eastward of the town the great promon- 
tory which juts out into the channel is strongly 
fortified; and at all times since the days of 
Philippe-Auguste, the town and its environs 
have been considered of great strategic value. 

The Dieppois as seafarers were in the old 
days, and to some extent are still, the rivals 



300 Rambles in Normandy 

of the Malouins of St. Malo in Brittany. In 
the fourteenth century explorers from Dieppe 
scoured the seas as far as Cape Verde and the 
African coast ; and fished for cod off the coasts 
of Iceland and Norway. 

Names of Dieppois famous to those who 
know the early discoverers and explorers of 
the new world are Jean Ango, the armateur 
(1480-1551), Jean Cousin, the pilot of Co- 
lumbus, who discovered the Brazilian coast 
(1488), the Admiral Duquesne, one of the 
glories of the reign of Louis XIV. (1610-88), 
and many others. 

Dieppe's two great churches, St. Jacques and 
St. Remi, are wonderfully preserved monu- 
ments of their respective classes, and are rich 
in those accessories and details which make a 
great church truly beautiful. The chapel of 
St. Yves in St. Jacques served as the oratory 
of Jean Ango, Vicomte de Dieppe, the bene- 
factor of the church. 

The town hall is of modern construction, 
but it houses a library of twenty-five thousand 
volumes, including many rare works and maps 
and plans of the coasts of Europe. 

The museum has many curios of town and 
country, which have come down from other 
days, and a fair collection of paintings, includ- 



The Pays de Caux 301 

ing works by Isabey, Le Pottevin, Colin, Le- 
maire Cugnot, Gamier, Falgniere, and others. 
On the stairway leading to the second etage is 
a curious and valuable carte cosmographique 
by Jean Cousin (1570), near which are placed 
several of the nautical instruments made use of 
by him. 

Dieppe, with its casino and its lawns, and the 
whole establishment devoted to baths and open 
air and indoor pleasures, places the town quite 
in the first rank of watering-places, though by 
no means is its situation as grand as that of 
Etretat ; nor is it so greatly in vogue as Trou- 
ville-Deauville. 

The chateau is a picturesque edifice high on 
the hillside, overlooking the shore, with four 
great towers, a donjon, and a pont-levis. It 
was built in 1435, but has been disfigured by 
various additions. To-day it forms the Ruffin 
barracks, and accordingly may not be visited 
by the curious. 

Near Dieppe is Arques-la-Bataille and the 
forest of Arques. 

The chateau of Arques was erected by Will- 
iam, the uncle of the Conqueror, about 1040. 
Its donjon was divided according to the usage 
of the time into two parts, though the second 
was doubtless a later addition. The history 



302 Rambles in Nonnandy 

of this great fortress-chateau, one of the most 
formidable in all Normandy, is very vivid and 
extensive, and is known to all lovers of French 
history. 

It was held successively, after its builder's 
time, by the Conqueror, Stephen, Geoffrey 
Plantagenet, Coeur de Lion, Philippe-Auguste, 
and Jean-Sans-Terre. Finally it reverted to 
the French Crown. Louis XIV. visited the 
chateau of Arques in 1648 ; but the Bernardine 
monks took from it in the seventeenth century 
much material for the construction of their 
convent, at which time it became practically 
a vast quarry of stone. In 1793 the ruins were 
sold for 8,300 livres; but in 1869 it again be- 
came the property of the state, and a guardian 
was installed to prevent further ravage. 

The sixteenth-century church of Arques-la- 
Bataille is an elaborate building, far more 
grand than one usually expects to find in a 
town of eleven hundred inhabitants ; but, after 
all, the town's chief attraction is the great rect- 
angular donjon, practically all that remains of 
the old chateau. 

The manor-house of Ango, also near Dieppe, 
is one of those reminders of the olden time 
which has reached us quite unspoiled. It was 
built by a celebrated ship-owner of Dieppe 



The Pays de Caux 303 

(1530-45), and is a great country-house sur- 
rounding a rectangular courtyard, to which 
one penetrates by two opposing entrances. 

The very beautiful pigeon-house is quite the 
most elaborate of its kind anywhere to be seen. 

Near Dieppe, also, is Puys, a sort of subur- 
ban watering-place for Dieppe itself. It owes 
its popular existence to Dumas jils, who made 
his residence there in summer. It was here 
that the elder romancer died in 1870 ; for which 
reason Puys may be said to be a true literary 
shrine. 

'■'■ Monte Cristo *' has something to say of 
the charms of Normandy. Addressing his com- 
panion, Bertuccio, Dantes says : 

'^ I am desirous of having an estate by the 
seaside in Normandy, for instance, between 
Havre and Boulogne. You see I give you a 
'wide range. It will be absolutely necessary 
that the place you select shall have a small har- 
bour, creek, or bay, into which my vessel can 
enter and remain at anchor." 

Possibly Dumas may have had in mind the 
little Norman village of Puys, where he died, 
when he wrote the above lines; though more 
probably not, as the " Count of Monte Cristo " 
was written at an early period of his life, while 
he died only in 1870. 



304 Rambles in Normandy 

Eastward toward the boundary of Normandy 
and Picardy, one passes Varengeville-sur-Mer, 
Sainte Marguerite and Quiberville, all delight- 
ful little seaside towns with a touch of the beau- 
monde in summer, and a dull, quiet, but none 
the less entrancing, life in winter, when the na- 
tives gossip about their last season's visitors, 
and speculate as to what the harvest may be 
the coming year, meantime catching a few fish 
and going weekly to the nearest market-town. 

Treport and Mers are the last two resorts 
on the Norman coast. 

There are the usual summer attractions, of 
course, but there is much more also, and the 
life of the fisherfolk of Treport and Mers 
forms a pleasant antidote to the observer of 
men and things who may become tired of watch- 
ing bathers and red umbrellas. 

Treport was the Ulterior Portus of the Ro- 
mans ; but it came to no great importance until 
well along in the middle ages. Robert I., 
Comte d'Eu, founded here in 1059 an abbey of 
the order of St. Benoit; and Robert Courte 
Heuse garnered his forces here to set out in 
battle against Henri Beau Clerc, King of Eng- 
land. 

The affairs of the ancient Comte d'Eu, in 
which Treport was situated, were many and 



The Pays de Caux 305 

varied in the middle ages, and it was but nat- 
ural that the seaport of the fief should speedily 
have grown to respectable proportions. 

The Church of St. Jacques dates from the 
fourteenth to sixteenth centuries; and, though 
reconstructed in the Renaissance period, has 
many attractive and beautiful details. The 
ancient presbytery is a charming Renaissance 
building with a fagade of sculptured wood. 

Mers, on the opposite bank of the Bresle, 
is usually linked with Treport, and is of itself 
a seaside resort of no mean pretensions. 

Next, perhaps, to the Chateau d'Anet, Nor- 
mandy's most celebrated Renaissance chateau 
is that of Eu in the Department of the Lower 
Seine, just south of Treport on the river Bresle. 
Eu itself is a town of considerable rank; and 
has, besides its historic chateau, a remarkable 
church, — St. Laurent's. It is an ancient col- 
legiate church and one of the most beautiful in 
all Normandy. 

The church was built 1186 - 1230 and recon- 
structed in the fifteenth century, but it ranks 
with the cathedral at Rouen, St. Maclou, and 
the choir of La Trinite of Fecamp as one of 
the greatest and most typical of the florid 
Gothic church edifices of Normandy. 

It should interest Hibernians from the fact 



306 Rambles in Normandy 

that it is dedicated to St. Laurence O'Tool, 
one time Archbishop of Dublin. Behind its 
fine retro-choir is a casket containing the per- 
sonal relics of this great man. 

In its actual state the Chateau d'Eu is of 
modern construction; but its souvenirs of the 
middle ages are numerous, nevertheless, and 
the names of its counts are not without honour 
in the annals of Normandy. The precise period 
of its foundation is unknown, but it dates per- 
haps from the period which preceded the ar- 
rival of the Normans into the Comte d'Eu, 
when it was probably simply a feudal fortress. 

The hereditary Counts of Eu do not date 
back before the eleventh century. The first 
who bore the title was Guillaume, son of Rich- 
ard Sans Peur, Due de Normandie, and grand- 
son of Rollon. When he died, in 996, he left 
the estates to his son, Eichard le Bon, whose 
reign was apparently a troublous one, beset on 
all sides by turbulent seigneurs, who envied 
his security of tenure and wanted it for them- 
selves, as was the way in those days. 

Robert, Comte d'Eu, played a great part in 
the Conqueror's invasion of England, and in- 
deed aided greatly in the preparations which 
went on previous to the actual descent upon 
England's shores. At the battle of Hastings 



The Pays de Caux 307 

he commanded the right wing of the invading 
army, and, as a recompense for his bravery 
and ability, was given Hastings Castle and its 
domains in the counties of Kent and Sussex. 
He died in 1080 and was interred in the Abbey 
of Treport, founded by his father, where re- 
posed already the remains of his wife Beatrix. 

Guillaume, the next heritor, had nothing of 
the good qualities and abilities of his father, 
and was " of an unquiet spirit and a pusillani- 
mous heart," as the annalist has it. His mau- 
vais passions inspired him to ill deeds ; and 
altogether he was an unpopular sort of a per- 
son. 

Jean de Bourgogne, Comte d'Eu, promised 
to deliver up the chateau to Edward IV., the 
English king, but Louis XI. ordered its destruc- 
tion instead. 

From a document of the time one reads the 
following, written in the picturesque old French 
of the time: 

" Dix-huictiesme jour de juillet, an mille 
qiiatre cent soixante et quinze, environ neuf 
heures du matin fut la ville de Eu et chastel ars 
et hrusles par les gens de guerre, par le com- 
mandement et ordonnance du roi." 

Five years after this event, in 1480, a modest 
manor-house was erected on the ruins of the 



308 Rambles in Normandy 

old castle. A century later the present splen- 
did chateau was begun, but, unfortunately, in 
the second year of our new century it suffered 
so greatly by fire that somewhat of its former 
magnitude has been impaired. 

The sixteenth-century chateau was begun 
after the marriage of Catherine of Cleves, Com- 
tesse d'Eu, with Henri de Guise (Le Balafre). 
It was never wholly completed as planned, but 
the notorious De Guise (or famous, if one 
chooses to think so) spent some time here, " al- 
ways absorbed and preoccupied." 

Charles de Lorraine, Due de Guise, and son 
of Henri de Guise, inherited the title, but never 
visited his chateau or the town. 

On June 26, 1641, Louis XIII., returning 
from Dieppe, stayed at the chateau; and his 
successor, Louis XIV., and the famous Mont- 
pensier sojourned there for a time; of which 
circumstance one may read at some length in 
that lady's '* Memoires." Shortly after she 
became Countess of Eu herself. 

In 1660 Anne-Marie-Louise d 'Orleans came 
into possession. The Due du Maine came in 
turn to occupy the estates, but, though he sent 
a deputation to take formal possession, he him- 
self never inhabited the chateau. 

The Due de Penthievre inherited the domain 



The Pays de Caux 309 

and occupied the chateau from 1776 up to 1791. 
Louis-Philippe made much of the Chateau d'Eu. 
His court was frequently held here ; and a most 
splendid fete was given on the occasion of the 
visit of Queen Victoria, who came to return 
a call from the French king. Some years later, 
in 1848, the prince became an exile in England, 
demanding a refuge from the young queen 
whom he had entertained so graciously. To- 
day the chateau belongs to the Due d 'Orleans. 

On the little river Bresle just south of Tre- 
port and Eu are Aumale and Blagny. The 
former possesses a remarkable sixteenth-cen- 
tury church, with a tower attributed, somewhat 
doubtfully, to Jean Goujon. Blagny has the 
Church of Notre Dame of the thirteenth to six- 
teenth centuries ; and near by, at Sery, are the 
remains of a Premonstratensian abbey, founded 
toward 1120. 

Neuchatel-en-Bray, across country toward 
Yvetot and Bolbec, is in the very midst of one 
of the richest pasture-lands of Normandy. 
The town dates from Merovingian times, and 
was called Driencourt before the construction 
of its chateau in 1106 by Henri I., Duke of Nor- 
mandy and King of England. Thus its impor- 
tance was early established. 

The Church of Notre Dame dates in part 



310 Rambles in Normandy 

from the twelfth century, and, with its later ad- 
ditions, forms an admirable expression of the 
architecture of its period, though in reality it 
is a work yet unfinished. It has been sadly 
mutilated. 

An ancient abbey of the Bernardine monks 
is now occupied by the town hall, library, 
Board of Trade, and school. 

The library contains many rare works, 
among them a manuscript Bible of the thir- 
teenth century, a polyglot Bible from the old 
Abbey of Foncarmont, a collection of ancient 
royal bells, dating from their origin, and a fine 
silver seal and contre seel belonging to 
Louis II., who was Due de Longueville and 
Comte de Dunois. 

Situated in so rich a pasture-land, Neuchatel 
is famous for its butter and cheese, as is Gour- 
ney, its neighbour on the west. The Suisse 
cheese of Neuchatel is also a variety of light, 
sweet cream cheeses, and is often confounded 
with Neuchatel in Switzerland, which really 
originated here in the midst of these Norman 
pastures. 

Yvetot, between Eouen and Havre, has not 
much fame with general travellers, though occa- 
sionally there is one who remembers Beran- 



The Pays de Caux 311 

ger's verses on '' Le Eoi d'Yvetot," and thinks 
it warrants a call. 

The history of Yvetot does not offer anything 
of remarkable interest except the memory of 
the Kings of Yvetot, which Beranger's satire 
so well recalls. 

The title of " Eoi " was given to the sei- 
gneurs from the fifteenth to the seventeenth 
centuries, and was first popularized — perhaps 
in a vein of cynicism, too — by Henri IV. 

Dumazet traced the succession of the title 
down to 1688, when it belonged to the illustrious 
family of Albon of Lyonnaise, the head of 
which was the Marquis d 'Albon. 

Tradition has preserved a certain style of 
buildings which crops out occasionally here. 
When the houses are not of wood, they are 
frequently built, or at least decorated, with 
little square cakes of quarried stone, in much 
the same manner as the Eomans made use of 
decorative brick. Some of the old-time houses 
of Caux are indeed reminiscent of the Eoman, 
with horizontal bands of stone or brick run- 
ning across the fagades in three or four 
rows. 

The Cauchois have some distinctive customs 
in dress and manners of living, and Yvetot is 
a good place to observe them. 



312 



Rambles in Normandy- 



Weaving is an important industry at Yvetot, 
and it employs about a thousand workmen and 
women. 

Near Yvetot is Allouville-Bellefosse, which 
possesses a phenomenal oak-tree celebrated 




throughout Normandy. ^ It is the grandest tree 
in the province. Its trunk is entirely hollow 
for a great distance above the ground and is 
nearly ten metres in circumference. It enfolds 
in its branches two chene-chapelles, as they are 
known. The lower is dedicated to Notre Dame 



The Pays de Caux 313 

de la Paix and the upper is known as the ' ' Cal- 
vaire. ' ' 

A French savant has figured out the age of 
this remarkable tree to be approximately eight 
hundred years. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE COAST WESTWAED OF THE SEINE 

Westwaed of the mouth of the Seine is a 
little strip of coast-line which in a restricted 
sense may be said to be the resort of the Pari- 
sian world of fashion during the summer 
months. Trouville-Deauville, Beuzeval-Houl- 
gate, Dives-Cabourg, and Arromanches have 
their own especial attractions and their own 
clienteles; but they are all much alike, and it 
is only in the old towns, such as Honfleur, Pont 
I'Eveque, Ouistreham, Ruys, or Port-en-Bessin, 
that one sees anything at all characteristically 
Norman. 

" To Honfleur seven and a half miles, which 
we made in an hour in a strong north wind, 
the river being rougher than I thought a river 
could be." So Arthur Young wrote in the 
eighteenth century, as he journeyed from 
Havre de Grace across the Seine bay to the 
still important port of Honfleur. '' A small 
town, full of industry," he continues, '* with a 

314 



Westward of the Seine 315 

harbour full of ships, and even some Guinea- 
men as large as at Havre." 

All this is true as far as a reminiscence of 
Honfleur's former glory is concerned; but its 
commerce to-day is fishing and the tourist's 
trade, and no deep-sea ships frequent its crum- 
bling quays. Instead of casks and bales and 
other evidences of traffic beyond the seas, you 
will find white umbrellas and artists ' easels set 
about on the wharves, with their owners all try- 
ing to catch the fleeting picturesqueness of the 
old town, which has heretofore been success- 
fully done by Eugene Boudin and his fellows 
in art of a half -century or more ago. The name 
of this great painter is much revered in France, 
and it stands for much that is best in the mod- 
ern French school of painting. Boudin 's work 
forms the bridge which links the romantic style 
with the frankly impressionistic. Monet was 
one of Boudin 's pupils; but he did not con- 
tinue simply a preacher of his master's tenets, 
but ran riot with colour in a way which Boudin 
himself could never have conceived. 

Boudin chiefly worked in those towns and vil- 
lages which fringe the north coast of France, 
as indeed Monet has done since. But Havre 
and Honfleur and the Trouville of other days 
claimed his best and most prolific work. 



316 Rambles in Normandy 

Through the generosity of his brother, M. 
Louis Boudin, — still a dweller on the Norman 
shore, — the important art museum of Havre 
has lately been endowed with over two hundred 
of Boudin's brilliant sketches; and at the 
smaller gallery of Honfleur (where Boudin, the 
son of a sailor, with the sea in his blood, was 
born) there are more than a dozen of his char- 
acteristic paintings. 

One reason why the art of Boudin is specially 
to be enjoyed at Havre and Honfleur (though, 
indeed, the public galleries of those places con- 
tain nothing of his that is so important indi- 
vidually as the great '' Port de Bordeaux " in 
the Luxembourg) is that there, within sight 
of its windows, are the elements, in depicting 
which with poetic realism Boudin won his title 
to fame. His are the iSshing-boats riding the 
restless sea, his the infinite variety of the roll- 
ing waters and the changeful sky. 

Boudin's characteristic was not of colour 
alone, but of motif as well. He painted Breton 
" Pardons/' Belgian towns and scenes in the 
market-place, and drew also the cattle of the 
valley of Touques. He '^ placed " his cattle 
perfectly in those fat meadows, — they became, 
as he was, a part of the country. He drew the 
fashionable world of 1868, crowding the beach 



Westward of the Seine 317 

of Trouville. Without wishing it, he was the 
historian of the crinoline and the beau monde 
of his time. But one always comes back to 
those scenes which were the inspiration of his 
life. Boudin set down, in unexampled vigour 
and vivacity, his impression of the Channel, its 
vessels and its ports, its waters, winds, clouds, 
and sunshine; the weather of every hour of 
each day. 

To-day one reaches Honfleur from Havre 
after much the same procedure as did the old- 
century traveller, whose description of the voy- 
age might well apply even now, except that one 
makes the journey by steam-packet in a con- 
siderably less time. The latter part of the old 
account is, however, only too true. The mouth 
of the Seine is almost a replica of the bois- 
terous Straits of Dover ; but it is the only way 
to get to the decayed old port, Honfleur, from 
Havre without going thirty miles or more 
around and crossing the ferry at Quillebeuf. 

Honfleur, the seat of a departed commercial 
glory, is to-day all the more attractive because 
of its dry-as-dust decrepitude ; and the contrast 
with the busy metropolis of Havre, across the 
Seine, does not exaggerate this, it only empha- 
sizes it. 

Here the sea, as it mounts at break of day, 



318 Rambles in Normandy 

finds the people already awake, and one sees a 
medley of fisherfolk and their craft, with which 
familiarity is needed for appreciation. The 
picoteux are a style of fishing-boat seen only 
out of Honfleur. These fishing-boats are very 
nearly yachts, for the modern science of con- 
struction, as to this type of craft, has not im- 
proved upon the provincial simplicity. 

It was the ancient town of Honfleur that once 
held the bulk of the trade with New France 
in America; but its real commercial glory is 
now gone, stolen by its more opulent and suc- 
cessful neighbour. The activity on its quays 
to-day among passengers, stevedores, and fish- 
ermen is but a comic-opera travesty on the 
more magnificent activities which once ob- 
tained. 

The beauties of Honfleur are to be found in 
its curiously appealing ensembles. All that 
remains of its thirteenth-century ramparts is 
the Quai Beaulieu, whence the boat for Havre 
leaves. Porte de Caen the ancient harbour was 
first called, and later La Lieut enance. East- 
ward lie the quartiers, as they exist to-day;, 
and, though they are but a mimicry of their 
former selves, they are still characteristic of 
the olden time. 

The denominations of the ancient parishes 




Honfleur 



Westward of the Seine 319 

were Notre Dame des Vases, practically non- 
existent to-day; St. Etienne des Pres, called 
to-day the town; St. Leonard des Champs, to- 
day really a suburb; and Ste. Catherine de 
Bois, rising up the sides of the Cote de Grace. 

Honfleur has, in its Cours de la Republique, a 
sort of miniature Cannebiere which fronts upon 
the old harbour. On the Quai St. Etienne is 
the old Church of St. Etienne, the most ancient 
in the city, though to-day it has been converted 
into a sort of local pantheon, which was com- 
mendable as an act of civic pride, but does not 
appeal to the outsider. 

From Honfleur, by the Trouville road, Puits 
is reached, one of the most extraordinary and 
most lovable of all the little towns in Nor- 
mandy. Here is the Church of St. Leonard, 
an isolated church surrounded by a sea of flag- 
.stones. It is not strictly beautiful as old 
churches go, though it is undeniably pictur- 
esque. On the other hand, all its charms are 
negatived by the heavy, meaningless tower or 
cupola which caps its facade. 

The curious timber Church of Ste. Catherine 
de Bois is perhaps the most appealing and pic- 
turesque feature which Honfleur possesses; 
and, when seen in conjunction with the still 
more curious wooden steeple, one wonders that 



320 Rambles in Normandy 

one has never been smitten by its charm be- 
fore. 

The church is separated from the tower by 
a narrow street, on which faces a most ungainly 
and ugly Renaissance portico. The main build- 
ing dates from the fifteenth century, and its 
rare and mellow timbered side-walls have worn 
well. These enclose the aisles, which have curi- 
ous little square windows with small leaded 
lights; while above rises a row of clerestory 
windows, also squared, but with good flamboy- 
ant mullions which would be the pride of many 
a more substantial and grander edifice. 

More daintily environed than any other of 
Honfleur's churches is the little sailor's chapel 
of Notre Dame de Grace, on the Cote de Grace, 
on the west side of the harbour. There is noth- 
ing very splendid about its surroundings or 
its appointments ; but on a day of pilgrimage, 
when the sailors and their wives, their sweet- 
hearts and their daughters, flock hither, it pre- 
sents a sight comparable only with the pardons 
of Brittany. Indeed, after its sailors and ar- 
tists, Honfleur would seem to be noted for re- 
ligious processions. 

The houses of Honfleur are, in general, less 
lofty and ornate than in many other regions 
of Normandy ; but their narrow timbered fronts 



Westward of the Seine 321 

and irregular gables render them no less pic- 
turesque. 

A half-dozen or more kilometres from Hon- 
fleur is a little stream, not marked on many 
maps, known as the Risle. On its banks, about 
the same distance from its juncture with the 
Seine, is Pont Audemer, another beautiful town, 
given over, however, to industrialism. Its tan- 
neries and cider-presses give employment and 
sustenance to several thousand people. 

The Parisian calls Pont Audemer the capital 
of the '* royaume de chicane,' ' and goes on to 
say that this district comprises nearly all Nor- 
mandy. This is manifestly an exaggeration 
and unfair; but it is claimed further that the 
municipal court-house at Pont Audemer is the 
most frequented of all its buildings, and that 
to be a notary, a lawyer, or a sheriff here is 
to become immediately rich. 

The town is picturesquely disposed on the 
banks of the Risle, which furnishes an abun- 
dant supply of water to the tanneries which line 
its banks. 

It has a really great church in St. Ouen, 
which makes it a place not to be omitted from 
one's itinerary, if it can possibly be included. 
It dates from the eleventh, the fifteenth, and the 
sixteenth centuries, and still possesses frag- 



322 Rambles in Normandy 

ments of early stained glass and some curious 
Renaissance wood-carvings. 

Between Pont Audemer and the juncture of 
the Eure with the Seine one comes upon one 
of the most lively and interesting parts of agri- 
cultural Normandy. Here the fields are liter- 
ally covered with apple-trees, planted more 
closely than elsewhere, to the number of a hun- 
dred to the acre, but the trees thrive exceed- 
ingly. The peasant cultivates his trees with 
great regard for their well-being, and is quite 
as deft and painstaking as his brother of the 
vineyards farther south. There are no vine- 
yards which are celebrated north of a line 
drawn from the mouth of the Loire to where 
the Oise joins the Seine, just south of the con- 
fines of Normandy. 

The Norman grower of cider-apples is assid- 
uous in his devotion to his work. To gain an 
advantage of his competitor he will rent more 
ground, economize and borrow to buy other 
land, and wait patiently, working meanwhile 
early and late for the fifteen years to pass be- 
fore he may gather a maximum crop. 

When the fruit is abundant all the Norman 
country-side is a land of fulness and plenty, 
which "in other times is wanting. Sometimes 
it happens that the cider crop is good when 



Westward of the Seine 



323 




In the Cider - apple Country 



the wine crop is bad. Then all the more profit 
for Normandy ; but the failure of the apple crop 
elsewhere — in England, for instance — does 



324 Rambles in Normandy 

not affect the market in Normandy. The 
French do not export cider as they do wine. 

None the less assiduously do the growers of 
cider apples in the north tend their harvest 
than the vine-dressers of the south; and the 
white or blond nectar of Normandy is as highly 
valued in its own land as are the ruby vintages 
of the south. 

Savants have before now attempted to trace 
the origin of the apple-trees which so plenti- 
fully besprinkle Normandy, but they have gen- 
erally fallen back upon the old excuse, " L'ori- 
gine s'en perd dans la nuit des temps." Some, 
again, have claimed that the first trees were 
brought from Italy by a Gauloise legion, a part 
of which penetrated into the north and settled 
in the land between Evreux and Caen; while 
still others of the older writers have said that 
the first apple-trees came from the north of 
Spain, in the time of Charlemagne. 

For three hundred years at least the process 
of cider-making has not changed in Normandy. 
It is a simple one, and doubtless does not vary 
exceedingly from the practice elsewhere, except 
that it is made here from the distinctive cider 
apple, of which there are three varieties, the 
bitter, the bitter-sweet, and the sweet. As 
made in Normandy, it is the pure juice of the 



Westward of the Seine 325 

apple, purer doubtless than most wines alleged 
to be made of the juice of the grape. There 
is no sugar or spice added, and no marble dust 
to simulate a carbonated drink. Since the ap- 
ples are not eaten, there is an abundance of 
all the varieties, which are usually mixed in 
equal proportions. 

The actual making of cider in Normandy is 
a sort of a home occupation. One does not 
take his apples to an established press in some 
centre of population, if he has not one of his 
own, but arranges for a sort of travelling 
brewer to come to his own house. The various 
disjointed elements of a press, differing only 
in details from the usual form known through- 
out the world, are brought up on a cart, un- 
loaded and dumped down in the courtyard at 
an early morning hour. 

' The process of erecting the press is not a 
long one, as the operation is astonishingly sim- 
ple. A heavy square or circular platform is 
surmounted by the latticed cylindrical or 
square box into which the apples, previously 
mangled by a sort of gigantic coffee-mill, are 
emptied until it is filled to the brim. The long 
capstan-like arms, propelled by the master 
cider-maker and his press boy, complete the 
operation, and, two hours after sun-up, the end 



326 Rambles in Normandy 

is in sight. By nine of a summer's morning 
he is on his way to the next customer, leaving 
behind the debris of two or three hundred kilos 
of apples, which have been turned into 150 
or more litres of the luscious brown juice, 
which only needs its eight days of fermentation 
to evolve itself into a sure cure for the gout 
and rheumatism. 

There is very little variation in the process, 
though often it is carried out on a larger scale ; 
and one progressive patron of an ambulating 
cider-mill has ingeniously attached a petrol 
motor by a simple system of shafting, which 
completes the preliminary process of mashing 
the apples in an astonishingly short while. 

There is another method somewhat in vogue, 
and, though it is not so commonly practised, 
it is supposed to produce finer cider. 

After a first crushing or bruising, the apples 
are left in a great tub open to the air for a day. 
Then the free juice is drawn off and the rest 
left to dribble out, after tepid water has been 
added to hasten the process. It is then left 
to ferment very slowly in a temperature of 
about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Small cider — 
the common variety, one might call it the vin 
ordinaire of Normandy — is a mixture of apple 



Westward of the Seine 327 

juice and river water; the muddier the better, 
it would seem. 

The consumption of cider is apparently in- 
creasing throughout France. Statistics show 
that it is made in over half the departments, 
and in Picardy, Normandy, and Brittany all 
classes drink little else. 

It is popularly supposed that the increase 
in the consumption of cider was originally due 
to the invasion of the phylloxera in the wine- 
growing districts of the south sorrie years 
since. Whether this is so or not, it does not 
much matter; the real Normandy cider forms 
a welcome summer drink after the heavy beer 
of England and the glucose-like compound of 
the Low Countries. 

The cider industry is one in which the profits 
fluctuate, because it is almost wholly an article 
produced for home consumption. When the 
fruit-growers and the cider merchants ' receipts 
are less, the money in circulation in the neigh- 
bourhood is correspondingly less ; and in some 
sections this produces much hardship. The 
cider of commerce is of two varieties, that 
drunk by the peasants and labourers of the 
towns — a rather weak mixture of cider and 
water — and that usually served at the better 
class of inns and hotels. 



328 Rambles in Normandy 

Beyond Pont Audemer is Touques, a most 
ancient town of about 1,200 souls; possessing, 
in its Church of St. Thomas, the first stone 
of which was laid by Thomas a Becket, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, a shrine which no Eng- 
lish tourist should omit from his itinerary of 
Normandy. In the middle ages Touques en- 
joyed a great and growing importance until 
the Eevolution stunted its growth. 

Between Pont Audemer and the Seine, at 
Quillebeuf, is a patch of morass, like nothing 
so much as the polders of Holland. Here it 
is known as the Marais Vernier; but it has a 
real, genuine Low Country dike encompassing 
it, known as the '' Digue des Hollandaise. " 
An artist can here paint black and white 
spotted cows, windmills, houses on stilts, and 
most of the local colour of Holland without 
leaving the Seine valley. 

At Beuzeville is a fine public square sur- 
rounded by quaint old houses, with a church 
in the ogival style of the thirteenth century, 
and a charming market-house which, undoubt- 
edly, if transferred to canvas with the proper 
amount of skill, would make a picture worth 
buying. 

Pont I'Eveque, just south of Trouville, en- 
joys the reputation of being one of the most 



Westward of the Seine 329 

picturesque towns in Normandy. This is due, 
principally, to the aspect of the life of its 
streets and squares in conjunction with its 
backgrounds of old houses, the great square 
tower of its church, and the usual surroundings 
of a quaint market-town. At any rate, it is 
typically Norman and is directly on the line 
between Trouville and Lisieux, or across coun- 
try by road from Eouen to Caen; so there is 
not much excuse for real travellers to pass it 
by, although they frequently do so. Moreover, 
it is blessed with an excellent country inn, the 
Bras d'Or, where one is served a bountiful and 
excellent meal at a most modest price. 

Bons vivants will revere Pont I'Eveque for 
its cheeses. Situated in the midst of the Dis- 
trict of Auge, its pastures are very fertile, and 
accordingly its milk products are justly cele- 
brated. Rich pasturage and great orchard en- 
closures, with hedges of willow so thick as to 
form a barrier as impassable as barbed wire, 
indicate the source of prosperity round about, 
with here and there a modest chateau half -hid- 
den by the trees. 

In the neighbouring Chateau of Bonneville 
"William the Conqueror frequently resided. 

The ancient market and the old houses of 
wood lend an air of antiquity to the general 



330 Rambles in Normandy 

aspect of this rather more than usually lively 
country town. 

In the Touques forest, which is an exceed- 
ingly fashionable driveway in summer for the 
gay folk of Trouville, is the Chateau d'Agnes- 
seau, which dates from the reign of Louis XIII. 
At the cross-roads of Croix-Sonnet one comes 
to a vast plateau set out with orchards and 
fruit-gardens, while the forest itself, as one 
enters it by road from Trouville, offers thirty 
or more kilometres of beautiful tree-lined road- 
ways, which must be refreshing to those dulled 
and jaded with the stone pavements and hot 
sands of Trouville-Deauville. 

At the St. Philibert is a statue framed with 
verdure, erected by the wood-choppers of the 
forest to Notre Dame des Bois. 

One makes his way from Honfleur to Trou- 
ville by a cornicJie road, which is a marvel 
among all similar roads in the north of Eu- 
rope. 

In a way, it reminds one of the famous cor- 
niche from Nice to Cape Martin on the Riviera, 
but so far as it goes it is a superb, though per- 
ilously planned, roadway running along the 
very face of the cliff, which blankets the coast- 
line for so great a part of the Norman shore. 
Its fifteen kilometres make an exceedingly pic- 



Westward of the Seine 331 

turesque drive, with charming snap-shots of sea 
and shore at nearly every turn. 

The Hotel St. Simon and its ancient farm 
and cour, which has been so often painted by 
artists (immortalized, one may say, by Monet), 
is passed on the right, and for a half-dozen 
kilometres or more one is within sight and 
sound of the sea and its sands. 

The only town of any magnitude whatever 
passed is Cricqueboeuf, which has a celebrated 
vine-grown church dating from the twelfth cen- 
tury, and an old manor-house which is unusu- 
ally pretentious. 

From this point, on by Villerville, one 
reaches Trouville via the Jetee Promenade and 
the Terrasse which faces the square, below the 
dominating hills which run inland to the woods 
of Touques. 

' Trouville is principally the resort for soci- 
ety, for millionaire yachtsmen and horsemen; 
but, for all that, it is, in a way, a typical Nor- 
man fishing village. 

Lovers of Dumas will recall that it was the 
scene of the early life of Gabriel Lambert, in 
the romance of that name, Gabriel, the coun- 
terfeiter who finished his life in the galleys at 
Toulon, spent his early days at Trouville, 
whence he made his way to Paris by way of 



332 Rambles in Normandy 

Pont I'Eveque, — just the route that record- 
breaking automobilists take to-day. The story 
of Gabriel Lambert and Marie Granger is an 
interesting one, albeit a sad one, and there is 
a wealth of local colour woven into it. 

Trouville is also the scene of another of 
Dumas 's little-known tales, " Pauline." Du- 
mas 's own description of the little fishing vD- 
lage, as it then was, has a semblance of a like- 
ness even to-day, when rococo villas, great 
hotels, electric-cars, and golf links have added 
an air of modernity to it which is anything but 
peaceful. 

'^ You know the little town," said he, *' with 
its population of fisherfolk. It is one of the 
most picturesque in Normandy. I stayed there 
a few days exploring the neighbourhood, and 
in the evening I used to sit in the chimney- 
corner with my worthy hostess. . . . There I 
heard strange tales of adventures which had 
been enacted in Calvados and the Manche." 

Dumas also describes, though more or less 
superficially, many another quaint historic Nor- 
man town : Caen, Lisieux, Falaise, blessed with 
the memory of " the Conqueror's birth," Pont 
Audemer, Havre, and Alen§on. 

Trouville has two interesting, though not 
architecturally great, churches in Notre Dame 



Westward of the Seine 333 

des Victoires and Notre Dame de Bon Secours, 
which latter has an ex voto chapel as its great 
attraction. 

The town hall is a modern structure, but it 
has two fine landscapes by Charles Mozin and 
Isabey hung in its board-room. 

The public square is of course the rendez- 
vous of Trouville's fashionable element, and, if 
they are not '' five o' clocking " at the neigh- 
bouring tea-shops a V Anglais, they may be 
found strolling on the boulevard which flanks 
the sands " quatre a six," as the local expres- 
sion goes. 

It is impossible to catalogue society's attrac- 
tions here ; nothing is missing ; and those who 
are looking for the distractions of a modern 
watering-place will find them all. 

Deauville is Trouville's more exclusive and 
aristocratic neighbour, and has its polo field, 
golf links, tennis-courts, and automobile race- 
course. It is an impossible place for the man 
of moderate means, and is as Parisian as the 
boulevards themselves. 

The ^' Terrasse " may be called its chief 
sight, though hardly any but mammon worship- 
pers seek it out. Along its length and breadth, 
for it is a vast seashore boulevard sixty or 
more feet in width, are the villas of many whose 



334 Rambles in Normandy 

names are famous in the society columns of 
the journals of France, England, and America ; 
and, though Deauville's season is short, it is 
very lively. 

Villers-sur-Mer and Beuzeval-Houlgate each 
possess, in a minor way, the villa attractions 
of Trouville-Deauville. 

From Villers to Houlgate extends a line of 
sombre cliffs called the " V aches Noires/^ from 
"which fishermen may fish in June and July 
with almost invariable good luck. Its seaweed- 
strewn rocks are covered with mussels and 
other less edible shell-fish. 

Dives-Cabourg is another of those hyphen- 
ated resorts of the Calvados shores which pos- 
sess delightful aspects of sea and sky. 

Dives-sur-Mer is the old town, the very old 
town, from which set sail William the Con- 
queror, in his descent upon England, with his 
two hundred thousand varlets and fifty thou- 
sand gens d'armes. Accordingly Dives and the 
country round about should prove of an interest 
to all lovers of historic shrines. The Church 
of Notre Dame is of the fourteenth and fif- 
teenth centuries; but built up from the ruins 
of an edifice which existed in the eleventh cen- 
tury, and was destroyed in 1436 by Edward 
in. of England. 



Westward of the Seine 335 

The old market-house of Dives, like many 
another in these parts, is an admirable con- 
struction in wood, and covers a part of the 
vast Place du Marche, where was formerly 
situated the ancient abbatial of St. Marie du 
Hibou of the twelfth century. The police now 
occupy an old Benedictine convent. 

Dives's really great curiosity, for those who 
marvel at personal relics of other days, is the 
'' Hostellerie de Guillaume le Conquerant," in 
part dating back to the sixteenth century at 
least, which has been preserved and restored 
with considerable care and skill by its proprie- 
tor, M. Le Remois. 

It is a veritable museum of ancient relics, too 
numerous to be more than hinted at here. It 
is decidedly the great attraction for the vis- 
itor, and whether he is impressed the more with 
the relics of the days of the Conqueror, or by 
those of the accomplished Madame de Sevigne, 
he will be assured of comfortable quarters, a 
warm welcome by the landlord, and a boimti- 
ful repast. A stay at this old-time hotel is 
decidedly one of the pleasures which all trav- 
ellers in Normandy will afterward cherish. 

Cabourg it is impossible to describe; and in 
spite of its proximity to Dives and its associa- 
tion therewith, one will not come away from it 



336 Rambles in Normandy 

with any feeling of regret. It is new, painfully 
new, with its shop-, cafe-, and hotel-bordered 
Avenue de la Mer, its casino, and its beach cov- 
ered with bathing-machines, red umbrellas, and 
white tents. 

The lay-out of this *' station balneaire " is 
unique. It opens itself out like a fan from the 
centre, where is the casino, with long, radiating 
streets and avenues bound together with semi- 
circular avenues in most symmetrical and dull 
fashion. There are fine sands, to be sure, and 
the attractions are all irreproachable of their 
kind; but the true lover of Normandy will 
much prefer to make his stay at Dives than 
at its seaside neighbour of Cabourg. 

Caen, the old capital of Lower Normandy, 
is one of those conventional tourist points 
which ten-day travellers from across the Chan- 
nel usually " do " in an afternoon, and hasten 
on to Bayeux for the night. With the beauti- 
ful '' Abbaye aux Dames," with its crypt of 
the thirty-four closely set pillars, at one end 
of the town, and the '' Abbaye aux Hommes," 
with the one-time tomb of William the Con- 
queror at the other end, to say nothing of the 
various churches lying between, it is hard to see 
why a tourist should hurry away. However, 
there is much available information on this 



Westward of the Seine 337 

paradoxical city of the present day Depart- 
ment of Calvados to be gathered from many 
sources; and, save to observe that its modern- 
ity and its ancient decrepitude are so strongly 
contrasted that it is bewildering, not much 
space can here be given to it. 

The chief sights are its eight magnificently 
planned mediaeval churches, of which the " Ab- 
baye aus Dames," founded by Mathilda, the 
wife of the Conqueror, and the '' Abbaye aux 
Hommes," founded by the Conqueror himself, 
are the most celebrated architecturally and his- 
torically. 

The Manor-house Gens d'Armes, so called 
from two curious statues which flank its tower, 
is situated somewhat away from the beaten 
track of tourist promenades, and is quite worth 
the hunting out, if only to snap-shot its remark- 
able disposition of parts. It is an admirable 
example of sixteenth-century French domestic 
architecture. 

With the same regard for architectural beau- 
ties, one must remark the admirable Eenais- 
sance apse of the Church of St. Pierre, mainly 
a Gothic fabric, but with the interpolation of 
one of the most elaborate and successful Ee- 
naissance adaptations in all French ecclesias- 
tical architecture. This portion of the edifice 



338 



Rambles in Normandy 




Tour cUs Cfnidi'Armtt 
CAE.N 
'3.:wc.'K. '03 

Tower of Gens d'Armes 



dates from the early sixteenth century, while 
the main body goes back to three hundred years 
before. It was the masterpiece of Hector So- 



Westward of the Seine 339 

hier, one of the leaders in the art of the Renais- 
sance in France. 

A bibliographical note which is often ignored 
is the fact that Caen was the birthplace of two 
men whose names are very great in French 
literature. 

The first is he who has been called the father 
of French poetry, though perhaps a truer name 
would be the father of French critics ; for Mal- 
herbe's title to the name of poet seems to rest 
mainly on those beautiful verses he wrote to 
console his friend Du Perier on the loss of his 
daughter, in which are the oft quoted lines : 

" Et rose, elle a v6cu ce que vivent les roses, 
L'espece d'un matin." 

Frangois de Malherbe was born in 1555 and 
died in 1628, and to French litterateurs he is 
known as the reformer (modernizer?) of the 
French tongue and of French poetry. The Mal- 
herbes seem to have belonged to Caen, for the 
father of the critic held the position of coun- 
sellor for the king in its magistracy. 

The other celebrated litterateur born at Caen 
was even a more interesting man, Huet, Bishop 
of Avranches, the preceptor of the Dauphin, 
son of Louis XIV., — he who has been called the 
last of those encyclopedic and massive schol- 



340 Rambles in Normandy 

ars of whom France has produced so many. 
To-day one admires Huet most, perhaps, for 
the breadth of mind with which he united phi- 
losophy and orthodoxy. Malherbe and Huet 
are only two out of many of whom one must 
needs think, if one thinks of the past at all, in 
Caen, but they are probably among the clever- 
est of her sons. 

Here, then, is something more than six hours' 
work already laid out for the tourist. He will 
find innumerable facts and details set forth in 
the red-covered books with which tourists of 
all nationalities arm themselves ; and Caen, for 
many reasons, will prove a vast and edifying 
treasure-house. 

At Caen lovers of architecture should hunt 
out the Hotel d'Escoville, an elegant edifice 
accounted one of the best of Renaissance do- 
mestic establishments. It was built between 
1532 - 38 by an architect whose name, but not 
his fame, was buried with him. 

Two other similar structures exist at Caen 
of value in the study of architectural art, but 
frequently overlooked by tourists in general. 
They are the Hotel Mondrainville and the great 
pavilion of the Chateau of Fontaine-Henri. 

On the keystone of an arch of the church of 
Ifs, near Caen, may be seen a curious device. 



Westward of the Seine 341 

presumably that employed by the master builder 
of olden times as a sort of a trade-mark. In 
form it is readily recognized as a stone-work- 
er's hammer or marteau, and, like the curious 
cryptogrammic and *' Bill Stumpsian " marks 
on the cathedral at Cologne, doubtless means 
nothing more or less than the stamp of ap- 
proval of the builder or his workmen, or the 
insignia of the work actually put into place by 
some particular individual. 

Eunning due south from Caen there is a 
pretty bit of river — the Orne. On leaving the 
town, the road keeps close to the river, running 
through a charming valley interspersed with 
rocks and wooded banks, and in the midst of 
a country — 

« Richly set 
With chateaux, villages, and village spires." 

To continue up the valley of the Orne, and 
its smaller tributary, which is hardly more than 
a babbling brook, is to leave the well-worn 
roads behind and to strike out for oneself. 

The valley of the Noireau is one of these. 
The towns are not as populous or as famous, 
perhaps, as those that fringe the coast; but 
they have at least so much to offer that one 
would regret not having known them. 

Conde is a bustling little factory town, which 



342 Rambles in Normandy 

is idyllic as to its situation, though the place 
itself is unattractive enough. Tinchebray, 
where Henry I. of England defeated and cap- 
tured his elder brother, Duke of Normandy, in 
1106, has a curious church, overburdened with 
clock-faces ; for it has two, an ancient one 
which looks not out of place, and a modern one 
which looks as though it might belong to a 
cotton factory. Sourdeval is a charming old- 
world little town, though by no means a dull 
one, and when it celebrates the fete of its pa- 
tron saint in the summer, it is as gay as the 
gayest resort on the coast. 

The Brouains, which rises beyond Sourdeval, 
is a busy little working river which turns count- 
less mill-wheels, and also waters many square 
kilometres of meadow-land. Above is Cherence, 
which is not found on many maps, and here 
the valley widens into a more ample vista. 
Brecey is a small town with a large public 
square; and, ten miles away, the coast of the 
bay of Mont St. Michel at Avranches is reached 
through the Cotentin, after a journey of some 
forty miles by road. 

Not every one will perhaps make the journey, 
but the way is given here because of the fact 
that it embraces a region of the country-side of 



Westward of the Seine 



343 




Tinch ebray 

Normandy wliicli is unfamiliar and certainly 
very beautiful and quite unspoiled. 



344 Rambles in Normandy 

Bayeux, Balleroy, Ryes, Port - en - Bessin, 
and the coast-line from Arromanch.es to the 
" Roches de Grand Camp " might well occupy 
a lazy week. Most tourists rush into Bayeux 
by train or automobile, have luncheon, a look 
at the famous tapestry and the cathedral, and 
take the road again to St. L6, another cathedral 
town, and so to Coutances for the night. The 
thing is possible by either road or rail, but 
it is most unsatisfactory. 

Of Bayeux but little need be said here. The 
guide-books do it ample justice ; and the hand- 
books and various accounts which have been 
written concerning the now time-worn and 
rather dingy tapisserie have made it almost a 
familiar spot to ' ' armchair travellers ' ' as well 
as tourists. 

Near Bayeux is the charming Chateau of 
Balleroy, built by the elder Mansard, the orig- 
inator of the '' Mansard " roofs, in 1626. On 
Wednesday one may visit its great apartments, 
good pictures, tapestries, and rare old furni- 
ture. Although it does not rank with the great 
Loire chateau, it approaches it. 

The fagade is handsomely disposed, if one 
admires Mansard's manner, and the ensemble 
view just before one reaches the little village 
of Balleroy is quite on the grandiose order. 



Westward of the Seine 345 

The chateau dominates the village and stands 
high above even the top of the parish church. 
There is a chapel attached to the chateau, or 
rather situated within the park. 

Near by is the forest of Cerisy, planted 
closely with young birches like so many French 
forests. Nowhere does one see any old trees, 
and therein lies one of the reasons why the 
French forests are so well preserved. 

Northward from Bayeux to Ryes one passes 
at Sommervieu the old-time chateau formerly 
belonging to the Bishops of Bayeux, which to- 
day is reconstructed and used as a seminary. 

Normandy abounds in '' fortified farms." 
On the road to St. L6 from Bayeux there are 
several which one passes by road, and one of the 
best examples of its class is the farm of the 
Pavilion at Ryes. It has three great protected 
'gateways, which to all intents and purposes are 
quite on the lines of a fortification. 

Ryes is daintily situated on the little river 
Gronde, and possesses also a remarkable church 
of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. 

Asnelles, on the coast, four kilometres from 
Ryes, is a tiny watering-place whose popula- 
tion doubles itself during the summer months. 

Offshore, a distance of a mile or more, is 
a series of great rocks known as the rocks of 



346 



Rambles in Normandy 



the Calvados, from which the name of the de- 
partment was originally taken. It is presumed 
that the name Calvados was originally the 
name of one of the ships of the invincible Ar- 
mada, Salvador, which was wrecked here at the 




'■"o^*tu 









Walled Farm 









time of the coming of the Spaniards to invade 
the north. 

Arromanches-les-Bains is very pretentious, 
but of no interest whatever to the general trav- 
eller; though the artist, in spite of the distrac- 



Westward of the Seine 347 

tions of the little resort, will get some good 
bits of life and colour among the mackerel fish- 
ermen of the town. 

Port-en-Bessin, lying to the westward of 
Arromanches, just before the Cotentin penin- 
sula is reached, is a fishing port at the mouth 
of the Drome which has not yet become over- 
run by tourists of the watering-place kind. 
Many who know its fame come here from neigh- 
bouring towns to enjoy the luncheons and din- 
ners of the town's fine tables d'hotes, but this 
is all. 

It is yet quite an unspoiled bit, not accessible 
by railway and not on the direct road to any- 
where, though but eleven kilometres from Ba- 
yeux. For this reason it may retain for some 
time to come some measure of its present un- 
worldliness and the charm of its local manners 
and customs. 

South of the actual coast towns of mid-Nor- 
mandy, and before one reaches the plateau 
region of the upper valleys of the Touques and 
the Orne, from Rouen to Mont St. Michel via 
Lisieux, Falaise, and Avranches, are innumer- 
able roads which are unknown to most tour- 
ists. 

Since this book does not pretend to survey the 
old province minutely, not all of these byways 



348 



Rambles in Normandy 




Port-en-Bessin 



can be outlined here. Suffice to say that the 
chief towns of what one may be allowed to call 
South Normandy and those of the Cotentin 



Westward of the Seine 349 



peninsula and their characteristics are treated 
of in the chapters which follow. 

For the rest, any who will linger on the way 
in a trip across Normandy, from the Seine to 
the Bay of Mont St. Michel, in a line drawn 
practically midway between the coast and the 
southern border of the old province, will meet 
with a succession of old-world spots which are 
comparatively little known. 

Lisieux, St. Pierre, Falaise, Argentan, Dom- 
front, and Mortain point the way in a compara- 
tively straight line between the two points be- 
fore given and form the chief places of inter- 
est ; but the country which lies between is inex- 
pressibly charming, and has only to be threaded 
in any direction to prove the unexpected won- 
ders of days long gone by. The survival of 
many manners and customs which have not yet 
died out or become worldly by contact with 
railways, telegraphs, telephones, and great met- 
ropolitan newspapers will also be revealed. 

If there ever was a city of wood it is Lisieux. 
All its buildings, however, are not wood; for 
there is a not very beautiful, but astonishingly 
complete, Gothic cathedral, and numerous other 
civil and domestic structures which are of stone ; 
but wooden houses are everywhere, and in 
every state of hoary and tumble-down pictur- 



350 Rambles in Normandy 

esqueness. Occasionally, even to-day, a salon 
exhibitor will show a painting of a street of 
those old lean-to houses of Eouen, which tour- 
ists and buyers of picture post-cards know so 
well. If he would paint some of those to be 
found at Lisieux, his fame would be made, for 
a more decayed, disreputable-looking, but alto- 
gether lovely, lot of mediaeval houses it is not 
one's good fortune to find elsewhere. 
As a local Frenchman has sung: 

« Dans nos vieilles maisons de bois, 
Le beurre est d'or, le cidre est d'ambre ; 
Juin rit aux 6clats ; mais Novembre 
Me semble aussi gai, quand je bois 
Dans nos vieilles maisons de bois." 

To Lisieux one passes through Normandy's 
most flowering farm-lands, but the thought 
of Falaise and its associations as the birth- 
place of the Conqueror will not allow one to 
linger by the way once he has got within fifty 
kilometres of it. 

To-day Falaise has eight thousand inhabit- 
ants who live around its ancient historic cha- 
teau, one of the most important military con- 
structions of mediaeval times. The town sits 
upon a sort of isolated promontory in a most 
superbly imposing situation. Its history is so 




Old Wooden Houses, Lisieiix 



Westward of the Seine 



351 



momentous and interwoven with that of the 
early days of the Normandy dukes and English 
kings that it were futile to attempt to review 
it here. 

The chateau is built of gray quartz, and its 
entire surrounding moat, with its twelve towers 







and two great gates each flanked by towers, is 
preserved to this day. The twelfth and thir- 
teenth century remains are admirably pre- 
served ; and the donjon, which in this case was 
perhaps the residential portion as well, is sit- 
uated high upon a great cliff overlooking the 



352 Rambles in Normandy 

valley at its base. This great, grim square 
mass has been restored in recent years (1869), 
and worthily, for its aspect has not changed 
from what it was when the great Norman Will- 
iam first saw the light within its walls. 

The Talbot Tower, a great cylindrical don- 
jon, was an addition during the English oc- 
cupation in 1415 - 18. One may stroll through 
the whole chateau under the leadership of a 
most capable guide, and the usual half-day 
given to Falaise will pass only too quickly. 

The troubadours of the south have their cele- 
brated heroines of whom they sing praises, but 
those of Normandy sing of Arlette of Falaise, 
the mother of the Conqueror. 

Historians of olden times have given her the 
name of Arlette, Arliette, Herline, Helaire, Al- 
uieve, Arlet, and Arlot ; but to the Latin chron- 
iclers she was mostly known as Herleve. Thi- 
erry has traced the name from its Scandinavian 
root as follows: Her — noble; leve — love. 
** A fine name," says a Frenchman, *' for a fine 
woman. ' ' 

Benoit de Saint More said: '' She was wise, 
modest, and generous, to which virtues she 
added a rare devotion." 

All good Normans, and some others as well, 
know the legend of the peasant maid, the gentle 




Donjon of Falaise 



Westward of the Seine 353 

Herleve, when she was surprised by Robert- 
le-Diable on his return from the chase at the 
fountain of the Chateau of Falaise. 

Vauquelin de la Fresnaye recounts it thus : 

" Des pifes et des jambes parurent 
Qui si tr^s beaux et si blancs furent 
Que ce fut bien au due avis 
Que neige est pale et flor de lys 
Emerveille, li torna s'anior." 

The story moves rapidly enough, and ulti- 
mately a son, "William the Conqueror, was born 
to Herleve and Robert the Magnificent. 

After the death of Robert, Herleve married 
the Comte de Conteville, who took the name of 
Herlevin. Two sons were born to the pair, 
Odon, Bishop of Bayeux, and the Comte de 
Mortain, who fought gallantly at Hastings in 
the train of his stepbrother. There was a 
daughter, too, Muriel, who became Duchess of 
Albemarle. 

Herleve and Herlevin were interred at the 
old Abbey of Grestain, whose ruins are yet to 
be seen near Honfleur. 

It is a well-recognized fact in history that 
Edward VII. is a direct descendant, the twenty- 
ninth in the line, of William the Conqueror, the 
illustrious son of Herleve of Falaise; but it 



354 Rambles in Normandy 

is not so widely known, apparently, that a num- 
ber of the reigning sovereigns of Europe are 
equally of the blood of the duke-king, William 
of Normandy. 

The Bourbons of France, Spain, Italy, and 
Brazil descended from Guillaume by the reine- 
rimperatrice Mathilde, daughter of Henri I., 
likewise the Bourbons-Orleans. 

The Emperor Joseph of Austria, of the house 
of Hapsburg, and Victor Emmanuel of Savoy 
follow, the latter in the thirtieth degree. 

Finally, the Kaiser Wilhelm II. is a descend- 
ant, also the twenty-ninth in line, of the Nor- 
man Herleve. 

All these illustrious sovereigns are proud in- 
deed of their Norman blood, and when Presi- 
dent Loubet visited the court of the Quirinal 
recently, he presented to the little Princesses 
of Italy a family of dolls dressed after the Nor- 
man fashion, a delicate sentiment apparently 
much appreciated by their elders, besides being 
held a political move of the first importance. 

When the Kaiser, a few years since, made his 
celebrated journey to the Holy Land, it was 
with the avowed intention of visiting the great 
religious monuments of Sicily, erected by the 
kings of the family of the Guiscards of the 
Norman Cotentin. 



Westward of the Seine 355 

The learned work of Bellencontre of Falaise 
on the genealogy of the ruling European houses 
traces all of the following directly in descent 
from the peasant maid of Falaise : 

''Angleterre, Anhalt-Dessau, Autriche, Bade, 
Baviere, Belgique, Bresil (Dom Pedro), Bruns- 
wik, Cobourg-Gotha, Danemark, Deux Siciles, 
Espagne, France (Bourbon et Orleans), Grece, 
Hanovre, Hesse, Leuchtenberg, Lucques, Meck- 
lembourg-Schewerin, Modene, Naples, Parme, 
Pays Bas, Portugal, Prusse (Allemagne), Rus- 
sie, Sardaigne, Savoie-Carignan (Italic), Saxe- 
Royle, Saxe-Altenbourg, Saxe- Weimar, Suede, 
Toscane, Wurtemberg. " 

The Church of St. Gervais, an eleventh-cen- 
tury edifice which was begun by Henri I., Duke 
of Normandy, is a fine work of its era, though 
there have been many later additions, notably 
those after the style of Hector Sohier, one of 
the chief of Renaissance architects in these 
parts. 

The Church of the Trinity dates from the 
thirteenth century, and is a very elaborate and 
graceful work, though showing many Renais- 
sance interpolations which rankle the critics. 
At Falaise is held the great fair of Guibray, 
which has been held annually in August of each 
year since the ninth century. This great insti- 



356 



Rambles in Normandy 




Street under the Church of the Trinity, Falaise 



Westward of the Seine 357 

tution, so justly celebrated for its magnitude 
and importance, is one of the sights of Nor- 
mandy, and is quite in a class by itself. For- 
merly it was a great mart for all sorts of wares, 
which ultimately were distributed through all 
the north of France ; but to-day it takes promi- 
nence with the fair of Bernay as a great horse- 
market. 

From Falaise, southwesterly to Domfront, 
the country-side is delightfully and pictur- 
esquely rolling, and deeply cut with river val- 
leys, finally rising to the highest elevation in 
Normandy, where one crosses the forest tract 
of Andaine, just before Domfront is reached. 

Normandy has a mineral spring of impor- 
tance at Bagnoles de I'Orne, situated in a deep 
gorge near Domfront. It is not a fashionable 
spa, as great Continental watering-places go, 
but the baths accommodate a quarter of a thou- 
sand bathers, and there are the usual conven- 
tional amusements. 

The following legend connects the waters 
with mediaeval times, and shows that they must 
have some desirable properties for those who 
affect that sort of a cure. 

An old seigneur of Bagnoles, of the name of 
Hugues, who regretted the rapidity with which 
he had lived the life of his youth, became trans- 



358 Rambles in Normandy 

formed by bathing in these salt waters. He 
tried them on his horse as well, and it, too, re- 
gained its early agility. All of which seems 
as good an endorsement of the efficacy of a 
mineral spring as one could wish, and the pop- 
ularity of Bagnoles de POrne has steadily in- 
creased. 

Frangois I. affected them, as well as his sis- 
ter Marguerite of Navarre and Henri IV. 
Louis XIV. tried the waters on his soldiers, 
and, so satisfactory was the result that, up to 
1840, the spring was used as a sort of auxiliary 
treatment at the military hospital at Paris. 
The old-time sixteenth-century bath-houses are 
still to be seen half-buried in the soil. 

After all, the Bagnoles de I'Orne will not 
offer much inducement for the lover of archi- 
tecture, or even of the highways and byways, 
to linger for long in their immediate neighbour- 
hood. He will be impatient for the grand pano- 
rama of Domfront, but fifteen kilometres away, 
through the old forest of Passais, where the 
hermit 'St. Front established himself in the 
sixth century. 

Those familiar with the church history of 
France will recall that this holy man finally 
came to the distinction of having the great ca- 
thedral of Perigueux dedicated to his honour. 



Westward of the Seine 359 

This magnificent structure marks the dividing 
line in the development of the Gothic architec- 
ture of France from the warmer-blooded styles 
which were born of Mediterranean surround- 
ings. 

St. Front built a chapel here in the forest, 
and gradually he and his disciples formed a 
village, the name of which, Domfront, was 
readily enough evolved from Dominus Frons. 

At Domfront William of Belleme, seigneur 
of Alengon, built a fortress in 1011, and the 
place became one of the strongest defences of 
Normandy in the middle ages. 

The Chateau of Domfront, situated a couple 
of hundred feet above the Varenne, served the 
Empress Mathilde as a retreat, and became the 
birthplace of the Queen of Castile. There are 
yet remaining two walls of its memorable don- 
jon, reminiscent of the struggles of the Duke 
of Montgomery, but the ancient fortress-cha- 
teau itself was dismantled in 1598. 

The panorama from the height of Dom- 
front 's donjon tower is one of the most remark- 
able in France. 

Of the twenty-four ancient towers with which 
the old town was surrounded, but fourteen re- 
main, and they for the most part are built into 
various structures of the town. One alone has 



360 Rambles in Normandy- 

been restored and fitted with a new upper story, 
— the Tower of Gondras. 

To the southward one sees Mount Margantin 
above the forest of Mortain. It is the most 
considerable eminence in Normandy, and rises 
to a height of 370 metres. 




A Co ten tine 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE COTENTIN 



The Cotentin peninsula is a great jutting fin- 
ger of land which runs out into that part of 
the Atlantic which Frenchmen know as La 
Manche, and which Anglo-Saxons know as the 
English Channel. 

It terminates in the Nez de Jobourg, a rocky 
formation which in its detached fragments 
makes up the Chausey Islands and the north- 
ernmost of the Channel Islands. 

The chief places of note in the Cotentin are 
Cherbourg, Valognes, and the ancient cathedral 
towns of St. Lo, Coutances, and Avranches, 
which, with Vire, Mortain, Pontorson, and 
Granville, and on the north coast Isigny, Caren- 
tan, and Harfleur, form a practical list of its 
important towns and cities. It is a great graz- 
ing and pasture-ground, and the little cows of 
the Cotentin, like those of Alderney, Jersey, 
and Guernsey, are held in great repute. 

The military port of Cherbourg, as it is 

361 



362 Rambles in Normandy 

known to-day, is a lively up-to-date gateway for 
visitors to France, resplendent with hotels and 
all modern conveniences. It was not so in a 
former day, when a travelled Englishman said : 
' ' Cherbourg is not a place for residence longer 
than necessary. I was obliged to go to a vile 
hole, little better than a hogsty, where, for a 
miserable, dirty, wretched chamber, two sup- 
pers composed chiefly of a plate of apples and 
some butter and cheese, with some trifle be- 
sides, too bad to eat, and one miserable dinner, 
they brought me a bill of nearly thirty shil- 
lings. ' ' 

Things have indeed changed, if there was no 
exaggeration in the statement. Even the most 
modern and up-to-date hotel of a great provin- 
cial town in France now seldom charges one 
more than twelve francs per day. 

There is not much of sentimental or romantic 
interest to be gleaned from a contemplation of 
Cherbourg, which, in the minds of most new- 
world travellers, is merely a landing-place 
whence one takes the train for Paris. 

As a matter of fact, Cherbourg is a great 
military port, which had its inception a couple 
of centuries ago, when the French had no port 
for war- vessels between Dunkerque and Brest, 
the former capable only of receiving frigates. 



The Cotentin 363 



The deficiency was fatal to the French on more 
than one occasion in their little wars with Eng- 
land, so admirably supplied with a base at 
Portsmouth, inside the Isle of Wight, directly 
opposite the peninsula of the Cotentin. 

To remedy this defect, a mole was planned 
to be thrown across the open bay to Cherbourg, 
but this proved so great an undertaking that the 
plan was modified in favour of a system of arti- 
ficial banks or bars. There were two entrances 
for ships, each commanded by a fortress which 
it is said was equipped a century ago with an 
apparatus for launching forth red-hot shot. 

On one of these bars, ultimately covered by 
the sea, was placed the following inscription: 

" Louis XVI Sur ce premier cone 6choue le 6 Juin 1794, a vu 

rimmersion de celui de Test, le 23 Juin 1786." 

' With the completion of the new harbour 
works, the hitherto dull city of Cherbourg took 
on a new lease of life. New streets and new 
houses were built ; but, in spite of the present- 
day signs of progress and activity, there is little 
here to appeal to the imaginative person. 

The undertaking was a prodigious one for 
the time, and the famous dike or breakwater 
was only recently completed, at a total cost of 
62,500,000 francs. It took more than fifty years 



364 Rambles in Normandy 

of constant labour, and four million cubic feet 
of stone, and encloses an area of a thousand 
hectares. 

Cherbourg has one valuable architectural 
monument, the fourteenth-century Church of 
the Trinity. It was consecrated in 1504 and re- 
stored in our own day. The interior has really 
fine decorations. 

The Henry Art Museum, named after its 
founder, contains a rather bulky and ill-as- 
sorted lot of paintings of no particular merit 
or fame, except a Van Eyck, a Poussin, an al- 
leged Murillo, and a few minor works of the 
Dutch and Italian schools. 

The suburbs of Cherbourg, toward the tip 
of the peninsula, form one of the most un- 
spoiled and little travelled corners of modern 
France. 

Near Cherbourg on the peninsula of the 
Hague, in the parish of Greville, is the hamlet 
of Gruchy, the birthplace of the painter Millet. 
The house bears an inscription on a tablet and 
is not difficult to find, if one can only thread 
his way through the tangle of by-roads which 
lie westward beyond Landemer, eleven kilo- 
metres from Cherbourg. It is an artistic shrine 
of real interest; and tourists, when at Cher- 
bourg, are advised to explore this wonderful 



The Cotentin 



365 



^' land's end " of Normandy, and pay homage 
to the birthplace of Jean Frangois Millet. 




Jtf^/son M- yean Tran^ois ^/i/tt 



Millefs Home, Gruchy 



Perhaps no modern picture is really so famil- 
iar to our eyes as " The Angelus " of Jean 
Frangois Millet, the struggling peasant painter 



366 Rambles in Normandy 

of Normandy. Those two figures, man and 
woman in the bare field, with the village church 
peeping over the horizon, are '' hung on the 
line," so to speak, in the mind of every one 
who has seen them. 

Millet waged a long battle for art against 
poverty. At times he would exchange six draw- 
ings for a pair of shoes, or a picture for a bed. 
He faced starvation, and was not moved from 
his purpose of painting the truth as he saw it. 
Even his greatest pictures left him in poverty. 
He said: " They wish to force me into their 
drawing-room art to break my spirit. But, no, 
no ; I was born a peasant, and a peasant I will 
die. I will say what I feel." 

Certainly when one is before his birthplace 
at Gruchy, it is not difficult to realize that at 
least there were no foppish or foolish influences 
at work in his youth, and that it was natural 
perhaps for him to carve out his future from 
the bald truth, as he saw it, in such pictures 
as " The Angelus " and '' The Man with the 
Hoe." 

There is a neglected corner of France in the 
extreme northwest of the Cotentin peninsula, 
beyond Cherbourg even, and known locally as 
the Hague. Cape Hague, the Hague light- 
house, and the Nez de Jobourg form a trinity 



The Cotentin 367 



of attractions for the traveller jaded with the 
stock sights of conventional watering-places. 

It is but a short thirty kilometres from Cher- 
bourg, en route to nowhere, unless one is head- 
ing for America, and is known to Frenchmen 
as the most isolated spot of all the mainland 
of France. '' One must not look there, '^ they 
say, ' ' for the wonders of art or civilization, for 
vegetation, the life of the casino, or the tables 
d'hote of the towns." 

Instead all is rock and sand and cliffs and 
zigzag paths cut in the steep escarpment, 
against which the sea batters tumultuously 
throughout the year. 

The landlords have not spoilt this region 
with Restaurants de Paris or Hotels d'Angle- 
terre, and, accordingly, it is one of the few 
accessible and delightful spots where the lover 
of nature sees it as God made it. What accom- 
modation there is in the neighbourhood does 
not rise above the dignity of modest tavern; 
but one will get such repasts of sea foods as 
would make the fortune of the proprietor of 
a Parisian restaurant could he but serve them 
as well and as cheaply. 

Habitations of all sorts are rare, and roads 
and railways less prolific here, perhaps, than 
in any other part of France. No railways, post- 



368 Rambles in Normandy 

offices, or telegraphs, save the line that runs 
to the signal-station at the Hague lighthouse. 
But it has its advantages as a place of resort, 
nevertheless. 

The beautiful meadows of Urville and St. 
Martin are brilliant with their carpets of flow- 
ers in spring-time, as green and fresh as if 
they were in the south, and the hills between 
which tiny rivers flow into the Atlantic or the 
Manche are as shady with leaves as Vallom- 
brosa. Suddenly all this changes as if by magic. 
The little river valleys become shelving red and 
brown rock and yellow sand; and the prairies 
end in a sheer fall of chalk-white cliff, tremen- 
dous to contemplate. 

Cape Hague is the name of all of that tiny 
peninsula which forms the northwest extremity 
of the Cotentin; and its minor topographical 
formations, the cliffs of Grreville, the Creeks 
St. Martin, Jobourg, and Vauville, are only 
known to the native. 

The great highway stops abruptly at a height 
of 180 metres above sea-level, just above the 
immense moors of Ste. Croix-Hague and Jo- 
bourg, with a view of the sea on three sides. 

In clear weather one may see the English 
coast through the glass of the keeper at the 
lighthouse, and at one's very feet, almost, are 



The Ootentin 369 



the jagged fangs of rocks which surround the 
Channel Isles, showing plainly how intimately 
they were once connected with the French main- 
land. 

This highroad runs straight away from Cher- 
bourg to the Nez de Jobourg, which is itself a 
high promontory of granite, carved curiously 
by the waves into grottoes, which are one of 
the principal curiosities of the region. 
■ After one leaves the highroad, the only prog- 
ress is on foot; even bicyclists had best leave 
their machines behind, and, as for automobil- 
ists, why, the chauffeur will doubtless not object 
to a repose in the tonneau, with nothing but 
the lap of the waves and the cries of sea-birds 
to disturb him. 

The little zigzag paths and tracks will re- 
quire all the attention and energies of the most 
sure-footed as he explores the region. But so 
much the better; for the picturesqueness and 
desolation of it all will amply repay one for 
his pains. 

Between Cherbourg and the extremity of the 
cape is Querqueville. The road undulates, with 
occasional views of the great harbour and ship- 
ping of Cherbourg until one passes the fortifi- 
cations on the moor of Ste. Anne. 

Here in the open country one may see a tiny 



370 Rambles in Normandy 

church, one of the oldest places of worship yet 
standing intact in all France. The choir is in 
the form of a trefle, and is a rare archaeological 
curiosity. 

To the right, half-hidden in a deliciously 
shaded vale, is the Chateau of Nacqueville. Its 
amiable guardian will permit you to examine 
it if you happen to be a member of the Touring 
Club of France. 

The little village of Urville is hardly more 
than a score of coquettish-looking little houses, 
charmingly disposed along the shady roadway. 
Here on a great sandy beach the English dis- 
embarked in 1758, when they besieged Cher- 
bourg and invaded the Cotentin. Certainly 
they chose a most suitable spot; but all is 
peaceful now, and the only invader one is likely 
to see is an American or an English artist, who 
has set up his easel far away from the madding 
throng. 

A little farther on, beyond the village of 
Laudemer, is a little hotel, all white and high 
up above the rocky escarpment which pares off 
toward the sea. It is the Hotel Millet, founded 
by the brother of the painter of " The Ange- 
lus. ' ' Truly we are now in an artists ' paradise, 
and, if not wholly an undiscovered land, it is 
a region not yet overrun with the conventional 



The Cotentin 371 



tourists. True, Barbizon is better known than 
Hague, but it is no more entrancing. In mid- 
August you will hardly find a dozen guests at 
the table d'hote of Hotel Millet. 

Far away extends Cape Levi, and the Gatte- 
ville lighthouse is just discernible. 

The isolated villa of Valtelles is camped se- 
curely upon a rock dominating the sea below, 
and a little thread of a foot-path marks the 
daily tramp of the coast-guard and the custom- 
house officer. 

At the opposite corner of the Cotentin penin- 
sula is the little maritime port of Barfleur, of 
1,200 inhabitants. It would perhaps hardly be 
remembered to-day were it not for the cele- 
brated naval battle of Barfleur. The town is 
quite worth the visiting for its own quaintness 
and charming situation, but is usually passed 

by. 

The Gatteville lighthouse is one of those 
wonderful monumental lighthouses which the 
French are so fond of erecting. This really 
great work lies just to the northward of Bar- 
fleur, and is a vast granite pile some ninety 
feet in circumference at its base, half that at 
its summit, and has a height of two hundred 
odd feet above its already imposing foundation. 

The rays of its great electric lamp shine out 



372 Rambles in Normandy- 

over the waters of the Channel for ninety kilo- 
metres, over fifty-five miles. 

From the top of this great tower the view 
is of great extent, embracing the whole penin- 
sula of the Hague; and, at night, one may 
clearly see the great light at St. Catherine's 
on the Isle of Wight. 

At Brix, a small town of two thousand in- 
habitants, between Cherbourg and Valognes, is 
a fine church built from the remains of an old 
fortress. This will, or should, recall the fact 
that Brix was the native town of the illustrious 
family of Bruce which gave to Scotland Robert 
the Bruce. 

Valognes, the ancient Alaounia of the Ro- 
mans, and a strong fortress in the middle ages, 
is a small town, though it is the principal one of 
its district. It possesses a library of twenty 
thousand volumes and a handsome church of 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which is 
said to have the only Gothic dome in France. 

There are a number of magnificent old houses 
which have come down from the time when Va- 
lognes was a viscounty. 

A great cattle market is held here every 
Monday, and the great establishment which 
packs and exports the butter, eggs, and cheese 
of the neighbourhood is a sight worth seeing. 



The Cotentin 373 



The remains of the old fortress-chateau of 
the middle ages, now moss-grown, still exist in 
the suburbs of Alleume. 

Carentan is an unassuming little town in the 
midst of the butter farms of the Cotentin. 
With Isigny it ' leads the butter market of 
France so far as its first blends are concerned. 
Due to the prosperity arising from its milk 
products is a fine, rebuilt fifteenth-century 
church, and there are many memories of the 
ancient importance of the town, Edward III. 
of England burned it in 1346, some days before 
the eventful battle of Crecy, and in 1679 a con- 
flagration destroyed over five hundred houses. 
Besides being the greatest centre for the trade 
in butter in all Normandy, it is also the centre 
of the region which raises the half-breed trot- 
ting-horse. 

' Carentan is connected with the sea by a canal 
eight kilometres in length, and there is consid- 
erable small coasting trade with neighbouring 
ports. 

Isigny, like Carentan, is noted for its cream 
and butter. Isigny butter is the name given to 
the product of all that region of Normandy 
lying between Bayeux, Barfleur, and Coutances. 

The grain elevators and the cattle market 
are truly the sights of the town on market-days, 



374 Rambles in Normandy 

and all else pales before the importance of this 
trade. 

Grandcamp, beneath which are the celebrated 
Eocks of Grrandcamp, is a summer resort and a 
tiny fishing port. 

It has a real artists' resort in its Hotel de 
la Croix Blanche, whose dining-room is a veri- 
table picture-gallery, with landscapes and sea- 
scapes by Boutigny, Gagliardini, Mathon, 
Bonne Maison, and others. 

In reality there is no port here at Grand- 
camp, only a sloping beach upon which boats 
are drawn as they fetch and carry from the 
vessels which anchor at some distance from the 
shore, beyond the bank of wild fairylike rocks 
at the base of the little cliffs. 

St. L6 is of ancient Gallic origin, and was 
once called Briovera, which in the Celtic tongue 
signified Bridge-over-the-Vire, as the little 
stream which passes by the foundations of the 
town is called. St. Laud or St. L6, Bishop of 
Coutances, came here to preach evangelization. 
Soon after his death personal relics of the saint 
were brought here, and finally the ancient town 
took his name. 

The religious history of the town is most 
profound, and as a place celebrated in warfare 
St. L6 ranks among the most important in 



The Cotentin 375 



Lower Normandy. The Catholics captured the 
town in 1574, after the Calvinists had been its 
masters for a dozen years, and massacred three 
thousand of its inhabitants. 

During the Revolution St. L6 was called the 
''Rock of Liberty." 

The very beautiful Church of Notre Dame, 
the ci-devant cathedral, is admirably placed on 
the edge of the table-land overlooking the val- 
ley of the Vire. Before it became a cathedral 
it was an ancient collegiate church, but this 
fine Gothic edifice as seen to-day dates only 
from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. 

Its towers quite rival, and are reminiscent 
of, those of either Chartres, Seez, or Senlis, 
and are far more beautiful and imposing than 
those of any church of its rank in all Nor- 
mandy. 

' There is also a fifteenth-century open-air 
pulpit, almost a unique attribute of a great 
French church, which is artistically charming. 
From it were, and still are, read publicly the 
acts of episcopal jurisdiction. 

In the Rue Poids-de-Ville, at No. 4, is the 
fifteenth-century Maison Dieu, a fine stone 
structure richly ornamented with stone sculp- 
tures. 

On the square before the cathedral one notes 



376 Rambles in Normandy 

a charming statue of a water-carrier, depicting 
the local custom which has not yet died out 
here. To-day even one may see these sturdy 
Cotentin maidens carrying their picturesque 
water-jugs in exactly the same pose as depicted 
in the statue itself. 

From St. L6 to Coutances is thirty kilometres 
by road. The city is an ancient bishopric, and 
its great cathedral is one of the most imposing 
and celebrated of those of the second rank in 
all France. 

Anciently known as Cosedia, the city became 
in time known as Constantia, after, it is be- 
lieved, Constance Chlore, who fortified it and 
made of it a stronghold long before the end of 
the Roman occupation of Gaul. 

The city was taken and retaken in the course 
of the wars which continued during the lives 
of the sons of Norman William, in the Hundred 
Years' War, and in the other religious wars. 

During the massacres of St. Bartholomew it 
was saved through the moderation of its gov- 
ernor, the Count of Matignon. 

The cathedral sits upon the crest of a hill 
three hundred feet above the surrounding 
plain, and is, in every respect, an exceedingly 
beautiful structure, with its two great towers 
rising to a height of nearly 250 feet. There is 



The Cotentin 377 



also a great octagonal tower at the crossing, 
from which may be had a magnificent view of 
the surrounding country, south to Avranches 
and Granville and, perhaps, on a clear day to 
Mont St. Michel, and westward to the isles of 
Jersey and Guernsey. 

Coutances has another remarkable old church 
in St. Pierre, fitted with pews, seldom seen in 
Normandy or indeed in France. It is a rebuilt 
fifteenth-century structure showing many Re- 
naissance interpolations; but, on the whole, 
it is imposing and pleasing. 

St. Nicholas is another ecclesiastical shrine 
with a tall square tower reminiscent of an Eng- 
lish parish church. Its chief distinction lies 
perhaps in the great monocylindrical columns 
which divide the arcades of the nave. 

The public garden of Coutances is an exceed- 
ingly ample and beautifully disposed park for 
a town of but seven thousand inhabitants. 

The aqueduct of Coutances, to the west of the 
town, was one of the most remarkable works of 
its time. The Romans built more magnificent 
ones, and many have been constructed in later 
days; but the pointed and buttressed arches 
of the thirteenth-century Coutances aqueduct, 
now almost entirely disappeared, must remain 
always one of the chief works of its kind. 



378 Rambles i n Normandy 

On the coast, midway between Coutances and 
Avranches, is Granville. It once had the repu- 
tation of being a vile, ugly, ill-built hole, whose 
only gaiety was due to the triflers on market- 
day. To-day the description does not fit, 
though it is gay enough in all conscience, and 
at all seasons, with its steamer traffic, its fish- 
ing, and summer visitors, for four months of 
the year. Before one is the Bay of Cancale, 
noted for its oysters; and in the far distance 
is St. Michel's rock, with its satellite of Tombe- 
laine. Down at the head of the bay is the 
gateway into Brittany, through the episcopal 
town of Dol, itself a queer, sleepy old place, 
with a street of decrepit houses, over which ar- 
tists rave, and a grim weather-beaten cathe- 
dral, which looks like the bastion of a fortress. 

Just off the shore from Granville is a group 
of nearly three hundred fanglike rocks which 
protrude toward the sky at low water, and are 
known as the Chausey Isles. 

They seem a worthless pile of rocks at first 
glance, but when one recalls that Paris draws 
its supply of flagstones for its sidewalks from 
these granite protuberances their mission is 
seen to be an economic one. 

To the west of the Chausey Isles are the very 
rocks described by Victor Hugo in his *' Toil- 



The Cotentin 379 



ers of the Sea." Still further from the main- 
land are the Minquiers and the Grelets, which 
at high water are, for the most part, hardly 
more than pin-heads above the level of the sea. 

On the principal isle of the Miniquiers, 
scarce a dozen feet above sea-level, is a little 
hamlet of a few huts and cabins of refuge built 
by the fishermen of Jersey and Guernsey. 

Granville is indeed a city of sturdy sailors 
and men of affairs. It is situated at the very 
tip of an abrupt promontory, picturesque in 
the extreme, known as the Rock of Granville. 
The upper town and the lower town each adds 
its own variety of life; and there is no city 
in Normandy where one may observe more con- 
trasting features than here on this rock-cut 
town overlooking the blue waters of the 
Manche. 

The place is a summer resort of the very 
first rank, and its hotels are all that the most 
fastidious could require, in spite of which there 
still hangs about it all an atmosphere that has 
not yet become vitiated by the conventions of 
society. The tides of the ocean here rise and 
fall to greater heights and depths than on any 
other part of the European coast, and the sea 
is the great and abounding attraction of the 
city, which has twelve thousand inhabitants. 



380 Rambles in Normandy 

As early as the twelfth century a chapel was 
built upon the projecting rock; and from it 
and its influences grew up the present city. 
For many years the city was held by the Eng- 
lish, but was retaken by the Normans in 1441, 
at whose head was Louis d'Estouteville, gov- 
ernor of Mont St. Michel. In 1695 it was bom- 
barded by the English, and Louis XIV. ordered 
the fortification to be demolished. 

In 1793 Granville opposed, with a courageous 
resistance, the Vendean army of twenty thou- 
sand men, commanded by La Rochejacquelin, 
who was forced to raise the siege. 

Again, in 1803, the English bombarded the 
town, but with little effect. 

Granville was the port of departure for a 
great number of privateers, who did consid- 
erable damage during the struggles between the 
French and English. 

The Church of Notre Dame is Granville's 
most interesting monument. It is built upon 
the point which culminates in the celebrated 
Granville Eock, and preserves many details of 
its ancient Roman construction. In its en- 
semble, however, it is highly florid Gothic, its 
later additions coming well down into the sev- 
enteenth century. In the interior is the Chapel 
of St. Nicholas, containing numerous donations 




The Rock of Granville 



The Cotentin 381 



of fishermen and sailors, — gilded anchors, 
models of full-rigged ships, and similar gifts. 

There is an unobtrusive casino and the usual 
watering-place appurtenances, but all is sub- 
servient to the life of the port and the town. 

The port itself is a wonder of what one might 
call marine architecture, were the term not ap- 
plied to ships themselves. It has two great 
basins and a superb mole considerably over a 
quarter of a mile in length. 

For the most part, the activity of the port 
is due to the local fishing-boats, the coasters or 
cahoteurs, and the deep-sea fishing-craft which 
sail to far-away Newfoundland and St. Pierre 
de Miquelon. 

There is some ship-building and considerable 
industry in fish-curing and the production of 
cod-liver oil. 

- Avranches was once an old cathedral town, 
but the Eevolution made away with its cathe- 
dral, along with many another ecclesiastical 
monument of France; but since the ancient 
bishopric of Avranches was in existence from 
511 to 1790, it may be inferred that its impor- 
tance was considerable. 

To-day it is a most interesting tourist point, 
though manifestly its position is not as proud 
as it once was. 



382 Rambles in Normandy 

A single shaft surrounded by a few poor, 
broken fragments is all that now remains of 
the edifice before which Henry II. of England 
did penance for the murder of Becket. 

The ancient episcopal palace is now the court- 
house, a modern reconstruction built upon re- 
mains which date from the fifteenth century. 

The public library contains fifteen thousand 
volumes and some valuable historical manu- 
scripts of as early a period as the twelfth cen- 
tury. 

The Jardin des Plantes is the ancient garden 
of a former Capucin priory (1618), now actu- 
ally occupied by a community of Ursulines. 
The remains of a fortified gateway and an an- 
cient tower and some moss-grown fragments 
of an ancient donjon are still left to suggest 
the aspect of other days from a military and 
strategic point. 

The view from the height of the upper town, 
the plateau on which once stood the former 
cathedral, and indeed where all of the modern 
town is situated, is one of great and wonderful 
beauty, particularly out toward the bay of Mont 
St. Michel, through the estuary of the river 
See. Indeed it is the altogether remarkable 
situation of the modern city on the summit of 



The Cotentin 383 



a great promontory plateau that constitutes 
its chief charm. 

One may eat of the best of sea and shore, 
including the famous oysters of Cancale, at any 
of Avranches's inns, so there is every excuse 
for not omitting it from one's itinerary. 

From the height of Avranches is the first 
clear view of the famous Mont St. Michel, so 
well known that one almost forbears attempt- 
ing to write of its somewhat terrible historical 
memories. It is indeed wonderful, but is diffi- 
cult to enjoy properly, owing to the number of 
people sent around with one guide, and the 
touts who throng the single street, and who do 
not leave you a moment's peace. 

Impossible as it is mentally to plunge back 
into the past, as ought to be done when at such 
a place, there is always a remembrance to take 
away, and the gaps can be filled up afterward. 

One can imagine how grand the place must 
look at neap tides, when the sea rushes in faster 
than a horse can gallop, or in winter in a storm, 
for it has been justly called " St. Michel au 
Peril de la Mer." 

Tombelaine, the island from which the Eng- 
lish made their gallant attack on St. Michel, 
offers a curious instance of the delusiveness of 
space. It looks to be within a stone's throw 



384 



Rambles in Normandy 



of Avranclies and the mount itself, but it really 
is quite an hour's hard walking, if one has the 
temerity to brave the always possible danger 
of the quicksands which surround it. 

The bay of Mont St. Michel of a moonlight 
night, when seen from the causeway leading 




to Pontorson, or, better yet, from a boat on the 
bosom of the bay itself, is indeed enough to 
have inspired the verses of Jean Eichepin, en- 
titled: 

"LE8 ECUS DE LA LUNE 

•' La lune au ras des flots 6tincelants 
Casse en morceaux ses jolis ecus blancs. 

Bon sang ! que de p^cune 1 
Si ton argent, falle, t'embarrassait, 
Pourquoi ne pas le mettre en mon gousset, 
Oh6, laLune?" 



The Cotentin 



385 



It is a fine road that runs from Avranches 
via Pontaubault to Pontorson, whence one 
makes his way along the causeway to the 
mount itself. 

It seems futile to attempt to describe one's 
emotions at first sight of that stupendous and 
wonderful fortress-abbey of Mont St. Michel. 
To know this wonderful place is to love it ; but 




Mont St. Michel in 1657 

no one can become intimately acquainted with 
it in a few hours, or even in a few days.. 

A rampart of walls and towers surrounds 
the little cluster of houses at the base of the 
mount; and before its ancient barbican the 
steam-cars, omnibuses, and automobiles set 
down their hordes of viskors of all nationali- 
ties, to say nothing of the countless hundreds 



386 Rambles in Normandy 

who come on foot and on bicycles over the 
causeway from Pontorson. The year's visitors 
are supposed to approximate fifty thousand. 

These ancient walls enclose a population of 
250 souls. Where they all live, and what they 
all do when tourists are few and far between, 
is a question. Viewed from a distance of a 
mile, the great rock with its crowning abbey 
does not look as if it had any other attribute 
save that of a vast mediaeval religious estab- 
lishment. As one draws nearer, he sees the 
few score of houses huddled about the abbey's 
haunches; but even then he doubts as to 
whether a quarter of a thousand people can 
stow themselves comfortably away, and won- 
ders where they find room for the visitors. 

The Porte du Eoi, the Claudine and the 
Chatelet towers, and the fortified bridge all 
prove the fact that the abbey was also a great 
fortress. These, however, together with the 
Michelette and the home of Duguesclin, are 
but minor attractions. The real and overpow- 
ering feature of it all is the great abbey itself, 
which rises tier upon tier, its statue-crowned 
pinnacle seeming literally to pierce the sky. 

In entering, one crosses the guard-hall, and 
goes up fifty steps to the court of the church, 
that tiny plateau from which one gets so wide 




Porte du Roi, Mont St. Michel 



The Cotentin 387 



a view of sea and shore and sky tliat he wonders 
if it is not the most ample and interesting in 
all the known world. Pontorson, Avranches, 
Granville, Dol, and St. Malo, on the mainland, 
are all spread out in the vast panorama. Near 
by is Tombelaine, a little brother to the mount 
itself, while on the dim horizon are the Chausey 
Isles, the Minquiers, and, if the day be clear, 
perhaps Jersey. 

Within the sanctuary one remarks all eras 
of mediaeval architecture, from the Eoman nave 
to the flamboyant Grothic choir. 

A narrow staircase to the right leads to a 
little terrace cut from the rock itself, which 
supports the Crj^t of the Gros-Piliers. On 
this same little terrace the great supporting 
buttresses of the upper works find their founda- 
tions, and one may climb a story, if he choose, 
on the charming Escalier de Dentelle. 

To enter the Merveille one descends again, 
and passes through the cloister, one of the most 
originally and gracefully disposed of any of 
its kind extant, surrounded by 120 svelt little 
columns forming the arcade. The refectory is 
a wonderfully brilliant apartment, and the Hall 
of the Chevaliers beneath, supported by three 
ranges of columns, will awake the memories 
of other days in the minds of all who know the 



388 Rambles in Normandy 

romanticism of historical details in the least 
degree. It was here, in this wonderfully old 
abbey, that the order of St. Michel was first 
instituted. 

To one side is the visitors' room, a remark- 
ably graceful, though much smaller chamber 
than any of the foregoing. 

The next lower floor is occupied by the cellar 
and the armory, all in the most sober architec- 
tural display. 

Crossing the walk and the crypts, one comes 
to the " Roue monte-charges," a great machine 
turned by the hands of prisoners of other days, 
by which materials and supplies were brought 
to this vast height from the sea-level below. 

In the thick granite of the walls of the old 
fortress-church were many dungeons and caves, 
where were hidden away criminal and political 
prisoners of all ranks. Here Barbes, Blanqui, 
and Raspail were imprisoned. 

In returning across the Hall of the Cheva- 
liers it is necessary to descend some steps 
graven in the rock itself; following respect- 
fully behind the guardian, who jingles his great 
bunch of keys, as if to hurry along the unwill- 
ing ones, which is practically what it amounts 
to, for he is a much overworked individual, 
this guardian. If you wish, you may make 



The Cotentin 389 



another round, for he will not leave you behind, 
and he journeys through these silent, unten- 
anted halls and chambers many times a day, 
with the precision and routine of a soldier on 
sentry duty, or a corporal inspecting the 
guard. 

If one spends the night on the mount, he may 
see the most splendid sunrise he has ever wit- 
nessed. One need not rise, for his chamber, 
if it is on the water side, faces the east. It 
is incomparable to anything to be seen else- 
where. It is as if one were in mid-ocean. The 
Normandy coast, not so very far distant, is 
silhouetted against the sky as the refulgent 
sun breaks through the clouds and mists of 
early morning. Suddenly the sea reflects it 
with mirror-like brilliancy, — another day is 
born. 

"West of Avranches is Mortain, situated in 
the midst of the most picturesque country-side 
of the Cotentin. It sits high on the flank of 
what, in Normandy, may well be called a moun- 
tain, and below it runs the tiny river Cance. 

The chief artistic monument of Mortain is 
the Church of St. Evroult, erected during the 
early part of the thirteenth century, with a 
Roman portal thought to belong to an ancient 
collegiate church of three centuries before. 



390 Rambles in Normandy 

There is a series of fifty-eight elaborately 
sculptured stalls of the fifteenth century, and, 
altogether, it is quite as worthy of enthusiastic 
admiration as many a more famous one else- 
where. 

To the northward, a half -hour's brisk walk, 
is the ancient Abbaye Blanche, or a reconstruc- 
tion of it, founded in 1105 for the Benedictines, 
and some years later affiliated with the order 
of Citeaux. 

The Cance below Mortain is one of those 
rocky river-beds that awaken one's admiration 
and surprise. It does not resemble in any way 
the Grand Canon of the Colorado or the 
Gorges of the Tarn, but it is an unspoiled bit 
of nature, quite as God made it. 

A Norman poet — Pontgibault — has eulo- 
gized it thus : 

" Combien j'eusse aim6 mieux m'en aller avec vous 
Parcourir ces vallons dont un Suisse est jaloux, 
Jouir (comme on jouet lorsqu'on est en vacance) 
Des m^andres charmants que dessine la Cance; 
Voir ce ' Pas,' on, dit-on, les Diables s'^gara, 
La ' Cascade ' aux flots bleus, petit niagara, 
La ' Grotte aux Sarrasins,' dont la fraicheur sinette 
Le dispute a ses eaux Fontaine Perrinette ! " 

Vire is another town of the Cotentin which, 
like most of its brothers or sisters, sits high 



The Cotentin 391 



upon an escarpment of surrounding hills. It 
occupies a veritable amphitheatre, and it is 
most curiously, if not beautifully, planned. It 
was an ancient feudal settlement which grew in 
time to some importance as far as its military 
history is concerned. 

It is the birthplace of Olivier Basselin, the 
'' satirique " of the '' Vaux de Vire " and the 
inventor (in the fifteenth century) of that form 
of dramatic representation which we of a later 
day have come to know as " vaudeville." The 
evolution of the term is thus made simple 
enough, though what such representations 
themselves have actually become in these days 
is perhaps not so easy to define. 

The great Clock Tower and its ogival gate 
of the thirteenth century is Vire's chief archi- 
tectural curiosity. 

Its greatest and most artistic architectural 
attribute is the Church of Notre Dame, which 
dates from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- 
teenth centuries. Its interior appointments are 
marvellously elaborate, including a fine sculp- 
tured pulpit in wood dating from 1643. 

The town hall, a seventeenth and eighteenth 
century edifice, encloses a library of forty-four 
thousand books and 240 manuscripts, including 



392 



Rambles in Nomaandy 



a rich collection of works relating to the coun- 
try. There is also a very considerable collec- 
tion of paintings. 



i 










Clock Totoer, Vire 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NOEMAN COUNTRY - SIDE 

It is difficult to apportion to any part of the 
Norman country-side characteristics which are 
common to the whole province. 

Indeed, save for the fact that wine is not 
grown in Normandy, the whole region is given 
over to the growing of much the same crops, 
which seem to thrive in so many parts else- 
where. There is also the crop of cider-apples, 
of pears, and of many other fruits, including 
a delicious white strawberry, and the raising 
of sheep, cattle, and even horses, — all seem 
to flourish here in this great province. 

Perhaps it is that Norman thrift and hard 
labour account for much of the prosperity at- 
tendant upon its bountiful crops ; for certainly 
the Norman farmer, be he peasant or propri- 
etor, has the faculty of getting abundant crops 
from comparatively restricted plots of land. 

The Norman country-side may be properly 
said to lie to the westward of the Seine, begin- 

393 



394 Rambles in Normandy 

ning with the district of Neubourg and extend- 
ing to the Breton border through the base of 
the Cotentin peninsula. This is the true Nor- 
mandy, — Lower Normandy, — and it had for 
its capital in the old days the much bechurched 
city of Caen, as distinct from Eouen in Upper 
Normandy, the capital of the entire province. 
Eouen had early absorbed French manners and 
customs ; and its inhabitants spoke the French 
tongue long before the speech and religion of 
the Northmen had died out of the mouths and 
breasts of their descendants in the lower prov- 
ince. 

This is a fact advanced by historians, and 
may mean much or little. It is supported, how- 
ever, by the statement that William Longsword, 
the first Eollon's son, sent his son to Bayeux 
to learn Danish; for which reason it is argued 
that the lower province withstood the march 
of transition the longest. 

Everything in Normandy has an attitude of 
palpable prosperity. There are occasional 
tumble-down outhouses, to be sure, and now 
and then a deserted hamlet, but this is no sign 
of a prevalent poverty or an increasing indo- 
lence, and Normandy, without doubt, is one of 
the most industrious and wealthy sections of 
all France. 



The Norman Country-side 395 

The figures of population in France are ever 
full of surprises when regarded in comparison 
with those of another day. Many a French 
department has remained stationary as to its 
population for a hundred years, while occa- 
sionally one has decreased, as, for instance, the 
Department of the Eure, lying just west of 
the Seine, which has lost within the past decade 
something over five thousand of its children. 

The population of France, as a whole, in- 
creases of course, but it is mostly the urban 
centres that show an increase. The country- 
side remains at its dead level, and that, per- 
haps, is why it is prosperous. 

The men and women of Normandy are of 
rather larger stature than most of the popula- 
tion of France ; they live and dress in a more 
comfortable, if not a more luxurious, manner, 
and they generally exhibit an air of thrift and 
prosperity which in the neighbouring province 
of Brittany is notably lacking. 

As astute an observer as Professor Freeman 
— and he was an Oxford conservative of the 
most conservative type — had nothing but 
praise for Norman fare as compared with that 
of Paris. He said picturesquely and forcibly: 
*' Any one with an old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon 
stomach — a man who would have liked to have 



396 Rambles in Normandy 

dined off roast meat with Charles the Great, 
or breakfasted off beefsteaks with Queen Eliza- 
beth — will find the Norman diet coming far 
nearer to his ideal than the politer repasts of 
Paris." 

In the matter of eating, Eouen, except in the 
little market-farmers' tables d'hote, has become 
corrupted and Parisian; but at Evreux, Lou- 
viers, Conches, and at Avranches and Bayeux, 
one eats only the native fare, and is not glutted 
with beefsteak, mutton-chops, and ham and 
eggs, and, worst of all, ham omelets, which 
every hotel in a large city in France seems to 
think is a specially palatable dish to English- 
speaking folk. 

In the very heart of a wide-open bit of coun- 
try lies Evreux, a pretty little commercial town. 
As a manufacturing centre it produces the 
hosiery, woollen stuffs, and the other products 
of the province. As auxiliaries to the great 
factories are innumerable public-houses and 
wine-shops of such diminutive proportions that 
one wonders that they can carry enough stock 
in trade to satisfy a reasonably thirsty baker's 
dozen of workmen. They drink large quanti- 
ties of cider, the innocuous wine of the country, 
and relatively smaller quantities of the more 



The Nonnan Country-side 397 

dangerous '' applejack," which the French 
call Calvados. 

It is difficult to place Evreux in the category 
of those places tourists in general love to visit. 

Take away its bizarre Renaissance cathedral, 
and most travellers would know it not. But 
it is the typical chief city of a prosperous de- 
partment, nevertheless, and is the centre from 
which radiates much local influence. The pre- 
fecture is here, and here is the headquarters 
of the Inspector of the Mines, both of whom one 
interviews if he lives in the Department of the 
Eure, and desires to possess an automobile or 
steam-engine to pump water for his garden. 

There is nothing very formidable about these 
interviews with French officials. They are all 
most civil and obliging, but very formal. If 
you have any communication to make, you must 
first put it in writing on " stamped paper," 
which you buy for sixty centimes at a tobacco 
shop, and forward it by post. 

In due time a reply comes back to you, deliv- 
ered by the hand of the sous-commissaire of the 
commune in which you live, making an appoint- 
ment for an interview, or giving the desired 
information. It seems a roundabout way of 
doing it, but it serves to keep the under officials 
of the prefecture of a canton or a commune 



398 Rambles in Normandy 

up to their work, thereby always having in the 
routine of office any number of well-trained 
subordinates, who recognize the will and power 
of a higher administration. 

It is the military discipline over again, and 
it works very well indeed, in spite of the fact 
that it is not time or labour saving, two condi- 
tions of life which have not yet made much 
headway in France. 

The cathedral at Evreux is an interesting 
melange of good, bad, and indifferent Gothic 
and Renaissance architecture, and forms, as 
before said, its chief sight. It by no means 
takes rank among the secondary cathedrals of 
France as an artistic expression, but there is 
an inordinate amount of most excellent Renais- 
sance woodwork to be seen in the chapel rail- 
ings of its interior, which give it a much higher 
rank than it would otherwise take. 

There is a frightful portrait of Charles the 
Wicked in the choir of the cathedral, which 
would be interesting if it were in an art mu- 
seum or a picture-gallery ; but it is so hideous 
that it is quite out of place in a religious edifice. 

More interesting for the antiquarian is the 
Church of St. Taurin, all that remains of the 
old abbey of the same name built in 1026 by 
Richard II. . 



The Norman Country-side 399 

The bishop's palace, to the rearward of the 
cathedral, has quite a feudal aspect, and, while 
not architecturally beautiful, has magnificently 
disposed surroundings. 

There are the usual civic monuments that one 
sees in an important French town, the most 
beautiful, modern though it is, being a fine 
fountain ornamented with statues symbolical 
of the Eure and its tributaries, the Iton and 
the Eouloir. In the local art museum are 
shown an admirably arranged exhibit of med- 
als, and some specimens of ancient pottery 
made here. The pictures are quite of the ordi- 
nary variety. 

The civic belfry at Evreux is the chief curi- 
osity of the town after the cathedral. It is 
one of those quaint minaret-like towers one 
sees in the lower country; nothing but a lone 
pile pierced with a portal on its ground floor, 
and ascended by a spiral stairway until one 
reaches an octagonal outside gallery, above 
which there is a pinnacle in which hangs the 
great bell. 

The alarum-bells of a former day had some 
useful purpose to serve ; but to-day, unless the 
belfry of Evreux should be used as a curfew, 
its utility has long since passed. 

Just beyond Evreux, following the banks of 



400 Rambles in Normandy 

the Iton, is Conches, a typical Norman country- 
side town, with a historic past. It has a beau- 
tiful church, a charming situation on the top 
of a hill, and a typical and astonishingly good 
country inn, but little else. 

Conches had its origin in the foundation of 
an abbey here by the seigneur of the region, 
named Roger, in 1035. In 1355 King John gave 
the county of Conches to his son-in-law, Charles, 
Count of Evreux and King of Navarre, from 
whom it was taken some time afterward by 
force. The troops of the Duke of Lancaster 
and Philippe of Navarre delivered to the flames 
the old chateau and abbey; and to-day all that 
remains of the former is the great round don- 
jon in the gardens of the town hall. 

This old donjon turret is the most interesting 
memorial in Conches to-day, and is quite as 
representative of the manner of building these 
great circular defences as any extant. It is sur- 
rounded by a deep fosse, now herbage-grown 
and half -filled, and its walls are crumbled and 
covered with lichen and moss. 

The Church of Ste. Foy is a charmingly 
spired fifteenth-century edifice, not so ancient 
nor so rich in treasure as are many churches 
in an important town such as Conches; but. 




In the Church of Ste. Foy, Conches 



The Norman Country-side 401 

in spite of all this, it is as lovable as any and 
more picturesquely disposed than most. 

The ruins of Vieux-Conches, two kilometres 
distant, point out in a more or less halting 
manner the story of a past that is well-nigh lost 
in oblivion. There is here and there a pile of 
debris, some remains of old walls, indicating 
an old-time faubourg now overgrown and wiped 
out by its more ambitious parent. 

A word as to the excellent hotel, the Croix 
Blanche. It sits unobtrusively enough to one 
side, just beyond the Church of Ste. Foy, on 
the opposite side of the street, its courtyard 
literally filled to overflowing with those great 
two-wheeled, high-hooded carts so character- 
istic of Normandy. The stable, too, is full to 
its limit, as well as the country people's smok- 
ing-room, where, on an oilcloth-covered table, 
is served a bountiful bill of fare, with unlimited 
cider, for the modest sum of a franc a head. 

The dining-room proper, which you enter 
through the kitchen, where the patron himself 
presides as chef, is not an ample apartment, 
but it seats perhaps two score of people, and 
here, of all places en route across Normandy, 
you will get as typical a country meal, with 
asparagus and strawberries and such generally 
liked eatables, as will make you marvel how 



402 Rambles in Normandy- 

it is all done at the price; for some of these 
stalwart Normans, to say nothing of the omni- 
present travelling salesman, have astounding 
appetites. All this costs but a modest fifty 
sous. They make it up perhaps on the coffee, 
for they charge you fifty centimes for it, though 
they do give you a small glass of calvados with 
it, which after all leaves no ground for com- 
plaint. 

West of Conches is a grand forest tract, the 
road through which runs up-hill and down dale 
for fourteen kilometres. It is not a level road 
by any means, but it is a beautiful one. As 
one leaves this fine forest region and strikes 
the highroad again on the way to Laigle, he 
passes numerous little agricultural towns, set 
about here and there in a delightful rolling 
country, whose great charm is invariably their 
picturesque disposition. 

Eugles is one of these, and it has a grand 
old church, or, rather, two of them, which domi- 
nate the road for a half-dozen kilometres at 
either entrance to the town. Curiously enough, 
Eugles, a little country-side place of less than 
two thousand inhabitants, in the midst of a 
frankly agricultural region, shares with Laigle, 
twelve kilometres distant, and a metropolitan 
town compared to Bugles, the honour of being 



The Norman Country-side 403 



the chief centre for the manufacture of pins 
in all France. 

Laigle is a quaintly picturesque town. Its 
Church of St. Martin is a magnificent monu- 
ment of the fifteenth century, frankly Renais- 
sance with respect to most of its details, but 







Rugles 

with a most engaging great bare tower which 
dates from at least the twelfth century. 

The old brick chateau which faces St. Martin 
is now given over to mundane commercial af- 
fairs; but it is a fine example of the work of 
the younger Mansard, and a contemplation of 
its exterior details will place his work on a 
much higher plane than does his rather outre 
invention, the Mansard roof. 



404 Rambles in Normandy 

The tiny river Eisle — tiny in its breadth, 
though not in its length — cuts Laigle in twain 
on its way to the sea. 

Between Laigle and Mortagne is Tourouvre, 
with a fine church in St. Gilles, with its wooden 
vault covered with paintings, its fifteenth-cen- 
tury choir-stalls, and many other accessories 
which any church should be proud to possess. 

This church of Tourouvre contains many 
reminders of the connection of Normandy with 
New France in North America. One of the 
great coloured windows represents Julien Mer- 
cier and eighty families of the neighbourhood, 
who left here for the new world in 1650. An- 
other window shows Honore Mercier, the first 
minister of Canada, praying within this same 
church. 

From those who went from Tourouvre and 
its environs to Canada in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, a notable portion of the French- Canadians 
have descended. 

This emigration took place in the most opu- 
lent epoch of the reign of Louis XIV., when 
Colbert was minister. As the French authority 
Verrerie has said: 

" Ces families percheronnes, arrivees en 
nombre quand la colonie sortait a peine de 
Venfance, ont fortement influe sur les moeurs, 



The Norman Country-side 405 

habitudes, aptitudes, sur le langage et V accent 
de cette nation." 

It was during the administration of Colbert, 
the minister of Louis XIV., that the France of 
overseas first came to its full bloom. Jacques 
Cartier had already journeyed to the new 
world ; and the foundation of Quebec by Cham- 
plain and his people in 1608 gave the first real 
strength to colonial ambitions. 

Canada became a prosperous colony indeed, 
flanking both banks of the St. Lawrence and 
the northern shores of the Great Lakes, thanks 
to the discoveries of the intrepid voyager, the 
Cavalier de la Salle (1682), whose tomb in 
Eouen's cathedral has become one of those 
shrines much favoured by visiting Americans. 

The great tract afterward taken into the 
United States first received the name of Louis- 
iana, after the kingly patron of the discoverer, 
while Newfoundland and all of New France 
furnished an impetus to French exploration 
and development across the seas, which in later 
years was not sustained. 

Back of all this, a century before, appears 
the name of John Cabot, the discoverer of New- 
foundland and Canada. 

The question has often been discussed in 
Italy as to whether or no John Cabot was a 



406 Rambles in Normandy 

Venetian, or, rather, a Venetian citizen. They 
evidently believe he was, for certain records 
claim the existence of one loani Caboto as a 
resident of that city. 

The French, and the Normans more partic- 
ularly, give this no credit. They claim that 
Jean Cabot, which certainly sounds as French 
as John Cabot does English, or loani Caboto 
does Italian, was of Normandy. " He may 
have been Venetian by adoption," says your 
patriotic Frenchman, '' and it was in the serv- 
ice of Henry VII. of England that John Cabot, 
then settled in Bristol, left upon that voyage 
of discovery in 1492, accompanied by his three 
sons, which resulted in the skirting of the Amer- 
ican continent from Labrador to Florida; but 
Jean Cabot, nevertheless, was a Frenchman." 

The claim is not very fully substantiated, to 
be sure, but as the English claim him as an 
Englishman, and the Italians as an Italian, and 
inasmuch as he could not be both, perhaps he 
was a Frenchman. The French have evolved 
the word cabotage in marine nomenclature, 
which means navigation along the coast, show- 
ing at least the regard they have for the mem- 
ory of Jean Cabot. 

Before one reaches Mortagne there is the 
Abbey of La Trappe to be visited, an experience 



The Norman Country-side 407 

which will live long in the memory of the trav- 
eller. 

You may get nourishment and shelter for a 
surprisingly small sum, and you will be served 
and waited upon by brown-robed monks, with 
all the mystery which surrounds the accounts 
of such hospitality which have come down to 
us from other days. But ladies must not be 
of the party. At least they may not enter the 
inviolate precincts of the monastery itself. 
They may go only as far as the lodge at the 
gate, where one may buy picture post-cards 
and little boxes of chocolate from a garrulous 
old frere, who looks and acts as if he hugely 
enjoyed female society. He appears to be the 
only one of the community who mixes with the 
outside world, and is gracious, kindly, and good- 
natured, and will even arrange to have a simple 
meal cooked within the hallowed walls and sent 
out to the hungry ladies of the party. The men 
may enter and eat in the refectory. 

The fare is simple — exceedingly simple — a 
bit of preserved fish, an omelet perhaps, some 
boiled rice, and black bread with wine or cider. 
The price is also simple. You may give what 
you choose, or, if you can induce the happy, 
toothless old monk, who is the go-between of 
the world within and without, to set a price. 



408 Rambles in Normandy- 

he will probably tell you two francs for all, 
regardless of the size of the company. 

This is truly an idyllic way of conducting an 
inn for the clients, but it is hardly good busi- 
ness. The old monk fares much better when he 
leaves the price to the visitor. 

The monastery buildings are fine, but not 
strikingly beautiful from the outside, though 
set amid beautifully cultivated fields. The do- 
main is over three hundred hectares, and is well 
stocked with cows, sheep, and swine. There is 
also a large apiary, the conduct of which seems 
to be particularly suited to a monastic life. 

The brown-robed brother who mixes with the 
world seems to think so, too, and takes a par- 
donable pride in showing his beehives and 
beautiful cows to any one who will give him the 
opportunity. 

The present establishment occupies the site 
of an abbey founded in 1140, the ancient ora- 
tory of which now serves as a bake-house. 
Later the abbey became associated with the 
order of Citeaux, and finally the Trappists in- 
stalled themselves here in 1815, and commenced 
the construction of the present buildings. 

All the principal structures withiti the walls 
are strictly modern. The chapel dates from 



The Norman Country-side 409 

1890, the Capitulary Hall from 1891, and the 
cloister from 1892. 

Within the walls of the little garden is a fine 
statue of the Virgin in white marble, given in 
1847 by Madame Adelaide, the sister of Louis- 
Philippe. 

The library contains twenty thousand vol- 
umes, including a very beautiful missal in a 
folio format on parchment, written in Grerman 
script, and ornamented with miniatures and 
grotesquely decorated initials. 

Mortagne is an eminently dignified district 
capital of four thousand inhabitants, admirably 
situated for defence, as was proved in the olden 
time when it was long held by the Counts of 
Perche against all invaders; but is withal a 
sleepy, dull town, with really very little of in- 
'terest in it to-day for the traveller by road or 
rail, unless he happens to get here for the great 
Percheron horse-fair in December of each year, 
when transactions covering the buying and sell- 
ing of two thousand head or more take place 
within a single day. 

The church dates from 1495 - 1535, and is in 
no way remarkable except for its pretentious 
portal of the sixteenth century. There are 
numerous old houses of wood of the conven- 
tional rural Norman style, but, on the whole, 



410 Rambles in Normandy 

beyond a general air of smugness and prosper- 
ity in the town, there is little visible to endear 
it even to the inhabitant himself. 

Of feudal origin, Mortagne was the ancient 
capital of La Perche. 

The traveller by road from Mortagne to 
Alengon and Domfront, or to Mayenne, will 
think he has struck a genuine mountain trail. 

Not that the roadway is not good, for it is 
most excellently laid and graded. But, except 
for some mountainous parts of Brittany, this 
'' Suisse Normande " is the hilliest region in 
France. 

One should make a by-tour from Mortagne 
to Belleme and Mamers, if only to see what an 
unspoiled little old world a Norman hill-town 
looks like to-day. Belleme is all this and much 
more. It owns to nearly three thousand inhab- 
itants, and sits upon a height two hundred 
metres above the valley of the Huisne. 

There are many fine great houses in the 
town of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies, when everything was at the height of 
its prosperity. 

Of ancient feudal origin, Belleme was one 
of the most strongly fortified places in Nor- 
mandy in the eleventh century. The Counts 
of Belleme, more famous for their crimes than 



The Norman Country-side 411 

their virtues, were the possessors of nearly all 
of La Perche in the olden days. In 1082 they 
took the title of Counts of AleuQon as well, but 
Belleme remained the capital of their domains. 

Robert of Belleme was one of the most cele- 
brated chateau builders of his day, being pos- 
sessed of so great an ability that he was known 
as a most famous military engineer under Phi- 
lippe I. He built the Chateau of Belleme, 
Nogent le Rotron, and Gisors. 

Henri Martin, the historian, was born at 
Belleme. 

The Church of St. Sauveur dates from the 
fifteenth century, and is a splendidly appointed 
and decorated church of its time. There is a 
great modern window therein to the memory 
of the mother of Aristide Boucicault, the 
founder of the great store at Paris known all 
over the world as the '' Bon Marche." There 
are also paintings here by Poussin, Isabey, and 
Oudry. 

In the Square of St. Sauveur is an old forti- 
fied gate, a fragment left from the ancient cha- 
teau. 

Alen§on is first called to the minds of most 
women travellers as the original home of the 
lace known by its name. It is a great, over- 
grown, gone-to-sleep, old-world town, with a 



412 Eambles in Normandy 

gorgeously ornate church, some remains of a 
feudal chateau, and the memory of its siege 
by Geoff roy Martel, Count of Anjou, in 1040. 
Under the Cardinal Richelieu the place became 
the seat of a district, the administration of 
which embraced over 1,200 distinct parishes. 

The lace industry of Alengon in the olden 
time was justly celebrated. Working after the 
Venetian manner, a woman named Gilbert, a 
native of Alengon, first made this lace here. 
She obtained the exclusive privilege of making 
it up to 1685. The industry prospered up to 
1812, since which date it has fallen sadly, 
though it is hoped, and even claimed, that a 
phoenix-like revival may be expected at any 
time since the school of lace-making has been 
established. 

■ Alengon has its horse-fair on the January 
twenty-fifth and the February fourth of each 
year, and also a remounting post for the army, 
— all of which gives a certain air of prosperity, 
which at other times of the year is lacking. 

The Church of Notre Dame of the fifteenth 
century is the chief architectural feature, and 
its magnificently sculptured portal is of the best 
of late Gothic workmanship. 

The court-house and the prison occupy the 
site of the ancient chateau; in its facade are 



The Norman Country-side 413 







>^- :? 



Chateau d'AleriQon 



preserved two of the great crenelated towers 
of the portal, dating from the fourteenth cen- 
tury. 



414 Rambles in Normandy 

The art museum contains numerous paint- 
ings of little except local interest; but the 
public library has a superb series of decora- 
tions set about its walls in the twenty-six mag- 
nificently blazoned armorial bearings in oak, 
coming from the ancient library of the Val 
Dieu. The bas-reliefs are attributed to Ger- 
main Pilon and Jean Goujon. The library con- 
tains twenty thousand volumes, including vari- 
ous incunabula and 177 manuscripts. 

Argentan lies fifty kilometres or so north 
of Alengon, and on the way there is the tiny 
cathedral town of Seez, which has one of the 
most perfect of Gothic cathedrals of its size 
in all France. The little city has a most un- 
worldly aspect, silent but not sad. A French- 
man has called it a veritable ville episcopale et 
monastique. 

There is, moreover, a hotel — the Cheval 
Blanc — at Seez which is something more than 
a mere rest-house. It is a typical, unspoiled 
old-time hostelry, where you are well served 
with the products of the farmyard and the 
fields. It is decidedly an inn to be noted; and, 
if one stays overnight, he will be put to bed in 
an old oak-raftered room, with a highly waxed, 
red-tiled floor, which will make him dream of 
the days of long ago. 



The Norman Country-side 415 

Argentan, though it boasts but two thousand 
more inhabitants than Seez and has no cathe- 
dral, is a veritable metropolis compared to the 
latter. 

The Church of St. Germain is a fine building, 
sadly blocked and crowded by the surrounding 
houses which huddle around its walls and leave 
only the north fagade and the apse open to 
the day. The decorated Gothic tower (1638) 
is a fine achievement, and the interior arrange- 
ments are altogether charming. 

The Chateau of Argentan is the most satis- 
fying building in Argentan. It has two great 
square towers of the fourteenth century, which 
to-day form a part of an adjoining edifice used 
as a prison. 

The library, while not so extensive as that 
•in many other of the little capitals of Nor- 
mandy, has six thousand volumes relating to 
Norman history and affairs, which should make 
it of value to any one of antiquarian tastes. 

Northward from Evreux one follows the 
valley of the non-navigable, but utilitarian, 
little river Iton through the farm-lands of 
Evrecin and Neubourg, until finally one real- 
izes that he is quite in the midst of the open 
Norman country. The apple-trees are every- 
where; and the crop of cider-apples is here, 



416 Rambles in Normandy 

as elsewhere in Normandy, of first importance. 
Prairies that once were only grass-land have 







Argentan 



been made into orchards and workable farms, 
and the big and little farmers, by a constant 



The Norman Country-side 417 



and well-paid effort, have made it a veritable 
land of plenty. 

The little industrial town of Nenbourg lies 
between Evreux and Bernay, in the great Nen- 
bourg district, an ancient petit pays where was 
once a vast chateau, the property of the Mar- 




WW 









Market-place, Neubourg 

quis de Sourdeac of Eieux, which dominated all 
the neighbourhood. 

Like its more noble compeers in the Loire 
valley, it occasionally sheltered great companies 
of people who affected art and letters. As 
Moliere and Rabelais frequently attended upon 



418 Rambles in Normandy 

the court, when in residence at some gorgeous 
chateau in Touraine, so Sieur Pierre Corneille 
— who himself lived not far away, at Grand 
Couronne, near Rouen — was commanded to 
present a new piece at this little court of 
" Neufbourg " in 1661. 

Here was presented for the first time the 
'' Toison d'Or " by the royal company from 
Paris, in celebration of the marriage of the 
king and the conclusion of peace with Spain. 

'' The prologue was applauded generously," 
say the accounts of the time. This prologue, 
to a great extent, proved a prophecy of things 
to come, as the following lines will show: 

«< A vaincre si longtemps mes forces s'affaiblissent, 
L'6tat est florissant, mais les peuples gemissent; 
Leurs membres d6charn6s courbent sous mes hauts faits 
Et la gloire du tr6ne accable mes sujets." 

The chateau is in ruins to-day, but a con- 
templation thereof serves to recall this unfa- 
miliar page of the life of the times. 

Brionne is another charmingly situated little 
town of this fertile country-side which is little 
known, except to stranger-travellers by road. 
It shows industry, too, in its yarn and thread 
works, has had considerable of a historical past, 
and possesses the rather scanty ruins of a 
twelfth-century chateau. 



The Norman Country-side 419 

Above Brionne is Le Bec-Hellouin, all but 
forgotten, even by those who ever knew that the 
two Archbishops of Canterbury, Lanfranc and 
Anselm, were inmates of its old abbey before 
they came to their greater dignities. 

The Abbey of Bee was founded in the elev- 
enth century, and, as a great institution of 
learning, drew scholars from England, France, 
and Italy. 

It was on account of the doctrines and dogma 
inculcated in his mind here that Lanfranc, when 
he came to be made Archbishop of Canterbury, 
summarily deposed the Saxon bishops through- 
out England and filled their places with French- 
men and Italians. 

Of the remains of the old abbey to-day, the 
church, which is best preserved, guards, as if 
by some miracle, some fine statues and remark- 
ably beautiful enamels. The rest of the con- 
ventual buildings, or such as remain, have been 
turned into a military station for cavalry 
mounts. This desecration still goes on through- 
out France, which seems a pity, of course ; but, 
since the Concordat turned over Church prop- 
erty to the state, the state was naturally bound 
to make some use of it if possible, regardless 
of how unpicturesque and unromantic the re- 
sults might be. 



420 



Rambles in Normandy 







-^a. 



1»C-MEU0Uir 



Bourgtheroulde, between Brionne and Rouen, 
not far to the westward of Rouen, and just on 
the edge of the forest of Londe, is a chief town 



The Norman Country-side 421 

of a commune, but a very tiny chief town. It 
numbers but seven hundred souls, and has a 
Hotel de la Corne d'Abondance, which lives up 
to its name with respect to its fare, which is 
excellent. Once the town possessed a Renais- 
sance chateau, which disappeared during the 
Revolutionary fury. To-day only an entrance 
pavilion and a colombier, one of those great 
pigeon-houses which one sees so frequently in 
Normandy, remain. The church dates from the 
fifteenth century, and has some good Renais- 
sance glass. 

Bourg-Achard is another small town of the 
neighbourhood, and, while it is in no sense 
grandly picturesque, it is a charming little 
town, set amid a most beautiful country. Its 
Hotel de la Poste is above the ordinary, and 
there is a remarkably beautiful fifteenth-cen- 
tury church, once a dependency of an Augustin 
priory, with an unusual amount of elaborate 
accessories, including a twelfth-century bap- 
tismal font and a prior's seat in sculptured 
wood. 

To the westward is Bernay, greatly noted for 
its horse-fair, held annually in the fifth week 
of Lent. It is the home of the Norman sire, 
which has been interbred with most of the high- 



422 Rambles in Normandy 

class varieties throughout Europe and America, 
always to the advantage of the race. 

Locally known as the Foire Fleurie, because 
of its being held on Palm Sunday, one sees 
here — as he sees only here — throng upon 
throng of peasants, — breeders of horses in 
silk caps and blouses, and horse-dealers in 
round hats and caps. 

One never sees the type in such profusion 
elsewhere, and if one has an automobile at 
hand, so that he may get far away from the 
madding throng when it is all over, a visit to 
Bernay's horse-fair will be put down as one 
of the enjoyable experiences of life. 

There is very little direct voicing of yes or 
no, much blague and good humour, and not a 
little of simulated anger, as is the custom among 
horse-traders elsewhere. But the Norman tra- 
ders are keen, and seldom does a year pass but 
that the tenor of the trading has been satisfac- 
tory and profitable to all. 

Often there will be very little difference be- 
tween the offer of the dealer and the demand 
of the breeder ; but a difference of twenty sous 
is enough to make or break a bargain, not so 
much for the sum itself, but as matter of prin- 
ciple. 

Sooner or later the matter is arranged, and 



The Norman Country-side 423 



the interested parties repair to the nearest 
wine-shop to conclude the bargain. When it is 
all over, there is the drinking of a great quaff 
of cider: "La vrai bon here," the Norman 
calls it in his patois. 

All this time it is ' ' blowing hot and blowing 
cold " on other bargainings, and much time is 
lost over superfluous contentions, but it is all 
in the day's work. '' Eh! que voulez-vous? 
L'z'affe sont Vz'ajfe, maintenant ahoulez me 
vot' argent, m'n ami.'''' 

Yes, truly, '' business is business," and no 
spectacle of its kind is more amusing to the 
stranger or, apparently, to the participants 
themselves. 

The ancient abbey at Bernay, whose church 
keeps company with the parish church as the 
chief ecclesiastical monument of the town, is 
still standing on the market-place. 

The abbey was an ancient conventual estab- 
lishment for women, and their church is cele- 
brated for its typical characteristic Norman 
details, though it has practically been dese- 
crated by the untoward uses to which it has 
been put in our .day. 

The Chateau of Broglie and the town of the 
same name is near Bernay. There is a daintily 
attractive church, with its fagade in brown pud- 



424 



Rambles in Normandy 



ding-stone and a modern fieche of wood. It has 
also an arcade in the Norman-Romanesque 
style of the twelfth century. 







Interior of Abbey of Bernay 



The Chateau of Broglie has an imposing and 
pompous facade of the questionable style of 
Louis XIV., solemn and cold and not appealing 



The Norman Country-side 425 



to the finer sensibilities. It is framed between 
two great towers of feudal times, which were 
originally a part of the stronghold of the an- 
cient fief of Chambrois. 

Since the seventeenth century the chateau 
has belonged to that illustrious family of Ital- 
ian origin, the Broglis, who furnished three 
marshals to France ; an ally of the colonists of 
America in their revolution against the chafing 
of the English yoke; a prince of the name, 
who married the daughter of Madame de Stael ; 
and his son, a politician and man of letters, who 
died as recently as 1901. 

Up to the time of the French Eevolution, the 
possessor of this splendid domain spent much 
care and means on its up-keep and appoint- 
ments. There is left to-day a great library and 
a gallery of family portraits, including a bril- 
liant chef d'oeuvre, the portrait of Madame 
de Stael by Gerard. A somewhat gaudily 
painted chapel is attached to the chateau, which 
sits in the midst of a beautiful park of some 
sixty hectares. 

All these attractions are open to the inspec- 
tion of visitors under certain conditions; and, 
if the building and its contents do not rival that 
other more famous chateau of the Loire-Chau- 



426 Rambles in Normandy 

mont, now belonging to tlie Brogli family as 
well, it is at least liberally endowed witk in- 
terest. 



THE END, 



APPENDICES 



I. 



THE PROVINCES OF FRANCE 

Up to 1789, there were thirty -three great governments 
making up modern France, the twelve governments created 
by Francis I. being the chief, and seven petits gouvernements 
as well. 




X- 



Iloire 



.t«.V«00S5 EURE ,-sE,N^...TV^ ; \ v'lt. 

,.. • ^-v .,A rt ^,t||,cV HARNE (s* J»,.V 

^■' '-4: ^•"9"H^"V'"x'"'>«;e»J 



_Jr Vi: AIN ttrsAVyiCV 
"•■"jjit . f J ■ -^ / fvr T o ■.?-,--.■■, 'v^;'^ 
nrw:. jf^ /*iENN[^-— K . •. 5>: rii' ' V ^^ ^. 

, nI i^"^ ■■• NiRBUE -''^' " - > -^""^ .'•-•••SAVOIeS 
/, If-' ••,..■ JOHmUE. >-■•< - - ■....•v->,isere ! J 

[?• \ ••>RDOGi.t-...,,ycANTALr^'"''y^\ ^--T r;-<* 

Ei«IRO«DE';-< . .■^- • /'\'' '■'••f'' a ,' . '•..j-''"^H'v"\ 

/ UFO* ^' .■ TARN ■ 1 • ' J^--^ .'- -ynnnii _^ 



'MjVes 1\ .../io*^ '>J.,..,i""ERAWt, 
}pnfnitm.' ,"■' rSy 0..-,V MA., ^ 

Ul 







T%e Provinces of France 



427 



428 



Appendices 



In the following table the grands gouvernemenfs of the first 
foundation are indicated in heavy-faced type, those which 
were taken from the first in italics, and those which were 
acquired by conquest in ordinary characters. 



10. 
11. 



NAMES OF GOVERNMENTS 

1. Ile-de-France . 

2. Picardie 

3. Normandie 

4. Bretagne 
6. Champagne et Brie . 

6. Orleanais . 

7. Maine et Perche 

8. Anjou 

9. Touraine . 
Nivernais . 
Berri . . , 

12. Poitou 

13. Aunis 

14. Bourgogne (duch6 de). 

15. Lyonnais, Forez et Beaujolais 

16. Auvergne . 

17. Bourbonnais . , 

18. Marche 

19. Guyenne et Gascogne 

20. Saintonge et Angoumois i 

21. Limousin . 
B4arn et Basse Navarre 
Languedoc 
Comti de Foix . 
Provence . 
Dauphin^ . 
Flandre et Hainaut . 
Artois 

29. Lorraine et Barrois . 

30. Alsace 

31. Franche-Comt§ ou Comt§ 

32. Roussilon . 

33. Corse 



22. 
23. 
24. 

25. 
26. 

27. 
28. 



de Bourgogne 



CAPITALS 

Paris. 

Amiens. 

Rouen. 

Rennes. 

Troyes. 

Orleans. 

Le Mans. 

Angers. 

Tours. 

Nevers. 

Bourges. 

Poitiers. 

La Rochelle. 

Dijon. 

Lyon. 

Clermont. 

Moulins. 

Gudret. 

Bordeaux. 

Saintes. 

Limoges. 

Pan. 

Toulouse. 

Foix. 

Aix. 

Grenoble. 

Lille. 

Arras. 

Nancy. 

Strasbourg. 

BesanQon. 

Perpignan. 

Bastia. 



> Under Francis I. the Angoumois was comprised in the Orleanais. 



Appendices 



429 



The seven petits gouvernements were : 

1. The ville, pr6v6t6 and vicomt6 of Paris. 

2. Havre de Grace. 

3. Boulonnais. 

4. Principality of Sedan. 

5. Metz and Verdun, the pays Messin and Verdunois. 

6. Toul and Toulois. 

7. Saumur and Saumurois. 



II. 

The following are the names of the 
of ancient Normandy : 

PAYS 

Campagne de St. Andr6 

Pays d'Auge, the Pagus Algiensis 

Avranchin . 

Bessin, the Pagus Bogasiniu. 

Bocage (Le) or Pays de Vire 

Bray (Le), near Elbenf 

Caux, Pagus Caletensis 

Cotentin 

Pays d'Eu . 

Pays d'Evreux 

Pays de Plains (Caux) 

Rouennais . 

Roumois 

Pays du Val 

Vexin Normand . 



principal pays and pagi 

Dl^PARTEMENT 

. Eure 

. Calvados 

. La Manche 

. Calvados 

. Calvados 

. Seine Inf. 

. Seine Inf. 

. La Manche 

. Seine Inf. 

. Eure 

. Seine Inf. 

. Seine Inf. 

. Seine Inf. 

. Seine Inf. 

. Eure 



III. 

DUKES OF NORMANDY 



Rollon . . . . 
Guillaume (Longsword) 
Richard I. (Sans Peur) . 



912-927 
927-945 
945-996 



430 Appendices 




Richard I. (le Bon) . . . . 


996-1026 


Richard III 


1026-1028 


Robert (le Magnifique or le Diable) 


1028-1035 


Guillaume (le Conqu6rant) . 


1035-1087 


Robert (Courte-heuse) . 


1087-1106 


Henri I 


1106-1135 


Mathilde 


1135-1150 


Henri II. (Plantagenet) 


. 1150-1189 


Richard (Coeur de Lion) . . 


. 1189-1199 


Jean-Sans-Terre .... 


. 1199-1204 



ly. 

THE METRIC SYSTEM 



METRICAL AND ENGLISH WEIGHTS AND MEAStJHKS 



M6tre = 39.3708 in. = 3.231. 3 ft. 3 1-2 in. = 1.0936 yard. 

Square M6tre (infetre carr6) = 1 l-5th square yards (1.196). 

Are (or 100 sq. metres) = 119.6 square yards. 

Cubic M6tre (or Stere) = 35 1-2 cubic feet. 

Centimetre = 2-5ths inch. 

Kilometre = 1,093 yards = 6-8 mile. 

10 Kilometres = 6 1-4 miles. 

100 Kilometres = 62 1-lOth miles. 

Square Kilometre = 2-5ths square mile. 

Hectare = 2 1-2 acres (2.471). 

100 Hectares = 247.1 acres. 

Gramme = 16 1-2 grains (16.432). 

10 Grammes = l-3d oz. Avoirdupois. 

16 Grammes = 1-2 oz. Avoirdupois. 

Kilogramme =2 l-6th lbs. (2.204) Avoirdupois. 

10 Kilogrammes = 22 lbs. Avoirdupois. 

Metrical Quintal = 220 1-2 lbs. Avoirdupois. 

Tonneau = 2,200 lbs. Avoirdupois. 

Litre = 0.22 gal. = 13-4 pint. 

Hectolitre = 22 gallons. 



Appendices 



431 

















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432 Appendices 



ENGLISH AND METRICAL WEIGHTS AND MEASUEE8 

Inch = 2.639 centimetres = 25.39 millimetres. 

2 inches = 5 centimetres nearly. 

Foot = 30.47 centimetres. 

Yard = 0.9141 metre. 

12 yards = 11 metres nearly. 

Mile= 1.609 kilometre. 

Square foot = 0.093 metre carr6. 

Square yard = 0.836 metre carr6. 

Acre = 0.4046 hectare = 4,003 sq. metres nearly. 

2 1-2 acres = 1 hectare nearly. 

Pint = 0.6679 litre. 

1 3-4 pint = 1 litre nearly. 
Gallon = 4.5434 litres = 4 nearly. 
Bushel = 36.347 litres. 

Oz. Troy = 31.103 grammes. 

Pound Troy (5,760 grains) = 373.121 grammes. 

Oz. Avoirdupois = 8.349 grammes. 

Pound Avoirdupois (7,000 grains) = 453.592 grammes. 

2 lbs. 3 oz. = kilogramme nearly. 
100 lbs. = 45.369 kilogrammes. 
Cwt. = 50.802 kilogrammes. 
Ton =. 1,018.048 kilogrammes. 



Appendices 



433 



V. 

1. Itinerary of Normandy by Chemin de Fer de I'Ouest, 
from Paris, Gare St. Lazare. 




First-claas, 90 frcs. ; Second-class, 70 frcs. 

Paris (St. Lazare), Louviers, Rouen, Dieppe, Rouen, Cany, 
St.-Valery-en-Caux, Fecamp, Le Havre, par chemin de fer ou 
Rouen, Le Havre, par bateau (1). Honfleur (1) ou Trouville- 
Deauville (1), Villers-sur-Mer, Beuzeval (Houlgate), Dives- 
Cabourg, Caen, Isigny-sur-Mer, Cherbourg, 

St-Lo 
Port-Bail, Carteret (1), Coutances, Granville (1), Bagnoles-de- 
rOrne (1), Briouze, Dreux, Paris (Montparnasse). 



434 



Appendices 



2. Itinerary of Normandy by Cliemin de Fer de I'Ouest, 
from Paris, Gare St. Lazare. 



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First-class, 50 frcs. ; Second-class, 40 frcs. 

Paris, Les Andelys, Louviers, Rouen, Dieppe, Rouen, Baren- 
tin (Caudebec-en-Caux moyennant supplement'), Le Havre, 
Hoiifleur ou Trouville-Deauville, Villers-sur-Mer, Beuzeval- 
Houlgate, Dives-Cabourg, Caen, J^vreux, Paris. 



Appendices 



435 




AppendiceiS 




Appendices 



437 




438 



Appendices 




Appendices 



439 



X 




440 



Appendices 




Appendices 



441 




INDEX OF PLACES 



Acquigny, 266, 268. 
Agincourt, 80, 100. 
Agnesseau, Chateau d', 330. 
Aix, 26. 
Alengon (and Chateau), 31, 

107, no, 153, 332, 410, 411- 

414. 
Alleume, 373. 

AUouville-Bellefosse, 312-313. 
Amboise, o.'jj. 
Amiens, 204. 
Anet (and Chateau), 141, 

166, 266, 272, 273-285, 305. 
Angers, 32. 
Ango, Manor-house of, 302- 

303. 

Argentan (and Chateau), 
no, 349, 414, 415- 

Arques-la-Bataille (and Cha- 
teau), ^^, 98, 137, 138, 246, 
301-302. 

Arromanches, 56, 314, 346, 

347- 
Asnelles, 345. 
Ault, 98. 
Aumale, 99, 309. 
A u t h e u i 1-Authouillet, 268- 

269. 
Autun, 26. 
Auvergne, 24. 
Avignon, 206. 
Avranches, 18, 58. 91, 342, 

347, 361, 377, 378, 381-383, 

384, 385, 387, 389, 396. 



Bagnoles de I'Orne, 357-358. 
Balleroy (and Chateau), 344- 

345- 
Barfleur, 371, zyj,. 
Bayeux, 22, 31, 56, 58, no, 

248, 336, 344, 345, 347, 373, 

394, 396. 
Beaucaire, 108, 109, 144. 
Beauce, Plain of, 7. 
Beaugency, 139. 
Beaumont-Ie-Roger, 58, "JJ. 
Beauregard, Chateau of, 243. 
Bee, Abbey of, 419. 
Belleme, 410-41 1. 
Belley, Chateau du, 41. 
Bernay, 58, 93, 107, 109, no, 

357, 417, 421-423- 
Berneval, 286. 
Berthenouville, 249. 
Bessin, 78. 
Beuzeval, 314, 334. 
Beuzeville, 328. 
Bizy (and Chateau), ^^, 257. 
Blagny, 309. 

Boisdenemetz, Chateau de, 243. 
Bolbec, 309. 

Bonneville, Chateau of, 329. 
Bonniers, 211. 
Bon Port, Abbey of, 227. 
Bon Secours, 210, 215. 
Bordeaux. 26. 
Boscherville, St. Georges de, 

150, 186, 190-192. 
Bouafles, 250. 



443 



444 



Index of Places 



Boulogne-sur-mer, 26, 98, 171, 

303. 
Bourg-Achard, 421. 
Bourges, 190. 
Bourgtheroulde, 420-421. 
Bray, ^^, 249. 
Brecey, 342. 
Bresle, 98. 

Brest, 31, 53, 94, 272, 362. 
Breuilpont, 271. 
Brionne, 418, 419, 420. 
Brix, 372. 
Broglie (and Chateau), 423- 

4^6. 
Buei!, 272. 

Cabourg, 314, 334, 335-336. 

Caen, 22, 31, 49, 58, 83, 85, 
92, 99, 100, no, 147, 154, 
324, 329, 332, 336-341. 394- 

Calais, 171. 

Cantal, 52. 

Cany, 296-297. 

Cape Barfleur, 99. 

Cape de la Hague, 78, 99, 
366-371, 372. 

Cape de la Heve, 95, 99, 172, 
177. 

Cape Levi, 371. 

Carentan, 361, 373. 

Carrefour des Quatre Can- 
tons, 46. 

Catelier, 45. 

Caudebec-en-Caux, 57, 89, 
119, 160, 164, 17s, 184-185, 
211, 260. 

Cerisy, 345. 

Chambray (and Chateau), 
269. 

Chantilly, 39. 

Chapelle, Manor-house of, 
211. 

Chapelle Ste. Catherine, 46. 

Charleval, 232. 

Chartres, 32, 266, 375. 

Chateaux {See undor sepa- 
rate names). 

ChatelHers, 137. 



Chaumont-en-Vexin, 248. 
Chenonceaux, 285. 
Cherbourg, 22, 31, 51, 53, 79, 

80, 100, III, 118, 128, 157, 

272, 361-364, 366, 367, 369, 

370, 2>T2- 
Cherence, 342. 
Cobourg, giS. 
Cocherel, 270. 

Colmoulins, Chateau of, 288. 
Conches (and Chateau), 58, 

246, 396, 400-402. 
Conde, 341-342. 
Courcelles, 250. 
Courseulles, 53. 
Coutances, 31, 58, 90, 344, 

361, 373, 376-378. 
Crecy, 100, 2>7Z- 
Cricqueboeuf, 331. 
Croisset, 196-197. 
Croissy-sur-Andelle, 44. 
Croix-Mesnil, 46. 
Croix-Sonnet, 330. 
Croix St. Leufroy, 268. 

Damps, 268. 

Dampsmesnil, 249. 

Dangu, 247. 

Deauville, 51, 96, 314, 330, 

333-334- 
Dieppe, 8, 14, 31, 51, 52, 53, 

56, 57, 60, 76, 79, 80, 89, 98, 

99, 100, III, 137, 138, 147, 

154, 157, 218, 286, 293, 299- 

303, 308. 
Dives, 58, 79, 96, 99, 3I4, 334" 

336. 
Dol, 378, 387. 
Domfront (and Chateau), 

137, 139, 349, 357, 358-360, 

410. 
Dourdan, 251. 
Douville, 233. 
Duclair, 89, 187-188, 193. 
Dunkerque, 94, 181, 362, 

Ecos, 249. 
Ecouis, 234, 243. 



Index of Places 



445 



Elbeuf, 42, 57, 102, 104, no, 

211, 216-217. 
Epieds, 272. 
Etrepagny, 243. 
Etretat, 57, yd, 95, 98, 119, 

161, 286, 290, 291-294, 295, 

301. 
Eu (and Chateau), 57, TJ, 99, 

141, 224, 305-309. 
Evrecin, 415. 
Evreux, 31, 58, yy, 105, no, 

154, 244, 248, 258, 266, 270, 

324, 396-399, 415, 417- 

Falaise (and Chateau), 49, 
58, 108, 137, 139, 144, 246, 

ZZ'2, 347, 349, 350-357- 

Fecamp, 31, 57, 76, 98, 100, 
III, 205, 286, 294-296, 305. 

Ferme des Fiefs, 47. 

Fleury la Foret (and Cha- 
teau), 46. 

Fleury-sur-Andelle, 232. 

Fontainebleau, 39, 41, 43, 44, 
48, 192. 

Fontaine du Houx, 45. 

Fontaine-Guerard, Abbey of, 

Fontaine-Henri, Chateau, 141, 

340. 
Fontenay, 243. 
Fontenelle, Monastery of 

{See St. Wandrille). 
Forges-les-Eaux, 57, 158, 230- 

231. 
Formigny, 17. 
Fouet, Chateau, 42. 
Fromenteau, 190. 

Gaillard, Chateau, 9, 57, 137, 
236, 237-240, 246, 256. 

Gaillon (and Chateau), 141, 
147, 154, 167, 250-257. 

Gamaches, 243. 

Garennes, 272. 

Gatteville, 371-372. 

Genetey, 40. 

Gisors (and Chateau), 57, 



100, 137, 148, 154, 166, 210, 

244-247, 266, 411. 
Giverny, 57, 119, 158, 211, 258. 
Gournay, 57, ioi5, 310. 
Grand Andelys (^See Les An- 

delys). 
Grand Aulnay, 196. 
Grandcamp, 374. 
Grand Couronne, 166, 196, 

418. 
Grandes Dalles, 297. 
Grand Quevilly, 193, 196. 
Granville, 31, 49, 96, 97, 98, 

100, III, 361, ZJT, 378-381, 

387. 
Gresil, 42. 
Greville, 364, 368. 
Gruchy, 364-366. 
Guibray, Fair of, 108-109, 

144, 355-357- 

Harfleur, 57, 79, 179, 182, 361. 

Havre, 8, 14, 31, 49, 5i, 53, 
56, 59, 60, 62, 76, 80, 95, 98, 
100, III, 121, 157, 158, 160, 
162, 164, 167-181, 182, 183, 
197, 198, 201, 236, 260, 286, 
288, 289, 290, 293, 303, 310, 
314, 315, 316, 317, 318, ZZ2. 

Havre de Grace {See 
Havre). 

Hecourt, 271. 

Henouville, 40-41. 

Heron, 43. 

Heudreville, 268. 

Hogue, 100. 

Hogues, 43. 

Honfleur, 14, i7, 3i, 57, ii9, 
174, 178, 181, 182, 314-321, 
330, 353- 

Houdan, 162. 

Houlgate, 314, 334- 

Ifs, 340-341- 

Inferieure, Chateau, 141. 
Ingouville, 172, 177. 
Isigny, 106, 361, 373- 
Ivry-la-Bataille, T], 272-273. 



446 



Index of Places 



Jean-Sans-Terre, Tower of, 

233- 
Jobourg, 368. 
Jouy-Cocherel, 269. 
Jumieges, 57, yy, 150, 154, 186, 

188-191, 193, 205, 248. 

La Beauce, 162. 

La Bouille, 57, 160, 179, 194. 

La Fenille, 44. 

La Fontaine, 41. 

La Haie, Chateau de, 45. 

Laigle, 402, 403-404. 

La Londe, 41-42, Tj, 192, 209, 
420. 

La Perche, 158. 

La Roche-Guyon (and Cha- 
teau), 9, 31, 49, 56, 60, 119, 
139, 141, 211, 258-260. 

La Thuit, 166. 

La Trappe, Abbey of, 406- 
409. 

Laudemer, 364, 370. 

Laval, 31. 

Le Bec-Hellouin, 419. 

Le Mans, 32. 

Les Andelys, 9, 31, 57, 59, 61, 
yj, 78, 119, 130, 139, 153, 
166, 211, 23s, 236-243, 246, 
249, 250, 255. 

Le Tronquay, 44. 

Lillebonne, 57, 137, 183-184. 

Limes, 137. 

Lisieux, 18, 22, 49, 58, 99, 106, 
III, 137, 329, 332, 347, 349- 
350. 

Loches, 139, 190, 

Lorey, 271. 

Lorient, 31. 

Louis XIIL, Chateau, 46. 

Louviers, 39, 58, "7"], 102, 104, 
no, 121, 130, 153, 235, 250, 
262, 264-268, 270, 396. 

Lozere, 52. 

Lyons, 25, 26, 204. 

Lyons, Forest of, 39, 43-48, 
T7, 116, 231. 

Lyons-le-Foret (and Cha- 



teau), 43, 44, 57, 166, 231- 
232. 

Mamers, 410. 

Marseilles, 26, 177, 204. 

Mauny, 40. 

Mayenne, 31, 410. 

Melun, 31. 

Menesqueville, 232. 

Menilles, 270. 

Mers, 76, 304, 305. 

Mery, 179. 

Molineux, 57, 179, 194. 

Montivilliers, 288, 289-290. 

Montmorency, Chateau of, 

196. 
Montrichard, 139. 
Mont St. Michel, 49, 56, 58, 

95, 97, 248, 347, Z77, 378, 

383, 385-389. 
Morlaix, 181. 
Mortagne, 107, no, 404, 406, 

409-410. 
Mortain, 349, 360, 361, 389- 

390. 
Mortemer, Abbey of, 46. 
Muids, 59, 235-236, 240. 

Nacqueville, Chateau of, 370. 
Nantes, 32, 34, 263. 
Neubourg (and Chateau), 

105, 415, 417- 
Neuchatel-en-Bray, 309-310. 
Neufles-St.-Martin, 244. 
Nez de Jobourg, 78, 361, 366, 

369. 
Nez de Tancarville, "76. 
Nonancourt, no. 
Noyon, 265. 

Ossel, 211. 
Ostend, 218, 292. 
Ouistreham, 314. 

Pacy-sur-Eure, 268, 269-271. 
Paimboeuf, 32. 
Paroz, 126. 

Petit Andelys (^See Les An- 
delys). 



Index of Places 



447 



Petit Couronne, 194-195. 
Petites Dalles, 57, ^(), 286. 

297. 
Petit Quevilly, 193, 195-196. 
Petit Val, 44. 

Pitres (Pistes), 230, 232-233. 
Ploermel, 31. 
Poissy, 31. 
Pontaubault, 385. 
Pont Audemer, 22, no, 321- 

322, 328, 332. 
Pont d'Avignon, 26. 
Pont de I'Arche, 57, 58, 59, "JT, 

158, 205, 211, 216, 221-228, 

229, 230, 252, 262, 266, 268. 
Pont I'Eveque, 99, 106, 314, 

328-329, 332. 
Pontoise, 248. 
Pontorson, 97, 361, 384, 385, 

386, 387. 
Pont St. Pierre, 232, 233. 
Ponzanges, 139. 
Port du Gravier, 42. 
Port-en-Bessin, 314, 344, 347. 
Port Morin, 255. 
Port Mort, 59, 250. 
Puits, 319. 
Puys, 303. 

Querqueville, 369. 
Quevilly, Harbour of, 201. 
Quiberville, 304. 
Quillebeuf, 158, 202, 317, 328. 
Quimper, 31. 

Radepont, 232, 233. 

Rambouillet, 39, 192. 

Rennes, 31, 34. 

Richbourg, Chateau de, 44. 

Rosy (and Chateau), 47, 232. 

Rouen, 4-5, 6, 16, 17, 22, 31, 
39, 40, 41, 42, 49, 51, 57, 
59, 60, 74, 1^, 77, 83, 88, 89, 
90, 102, 104, no, 116, 121, 
141, 147, 148, 150, 153, 154, 
157, 158, 160, 162, 164, 165, 
168, 169, 172, 178, 179, 180, 
183, 186, 190, 192, 193, 194, 



196, 197-21 1, 212, 213, 215, 
216, 221, 224, 236, 248, 258, 
260, 262, 263, 264, 288, 305, 
310, 329, 347, 350, 394, 396, 
418, 420. 

Roumare, 40, yy, 192, 193, 209. 

Rouvray, 41, 77, 166, 192, 193, 
209. 

Rugles, 402. 

Ruys, 314, 315. 

Ryes, 344. 

Seez, 375, 414, 415. 

Senhs, 375. 

Sery, 309. 

Sommervieu, 345. 

Sourdeval, 342. 

St. Adrien, 42, 215, 260. 

St. Barbe, 256. 

St. Brieuc, 31, 181. 

St. Clair-sur-Ept, 247, 249. 

St. Cyr du Vaudreuil, 262- 

264, 268. 
St. Denis, 144. 
Ste. Anne, 369. 
Ste. Croix-Hague, 368. 
Ste. Marguerite, 304. 
St. Etienne du Vauvray, 234- 

235, 262. 
St. jouin, 290-291. 
St. L6, 31, 58, 106, 344, 345, 

361, 374-376. 
St. Malo, 31, 79, 80, 99, 387. 
St. Martin, 368. 
St. Menehould, 221. 
St. Ouen, 248. 
St. Pierre du Vauvray, 211, 

235, 236, 262, 349. 
St. Sauveur, 193. 
St. Valery-en-Caux, 57, 76, 

98, 286, 208-299. 
St. Wandrille, Abbey of, 185- 

187, 191. 

Taisniers, 43. 

Talbot, Chateau of, 233-234. 
Tancarville (and Chateau), 
178, 179, 183, 201, 202. 



448 



Index of Places 



Thilliers-en-Vexin, 243. 

Tinchebray, 342. 

Tombelaine, 378, 383, 387. 

Tosny, 59, 250, 255. 

Touques, ^^, 328, 330, 331. 

Tourouvre, 404. 

Trait-St. Wandrille, Forest 
of, yy. 

Treport, 31, 49, 56, 57, id, 98, 
99, III, 286, 304-305, 307, 
309. 

Trouville, 51, 52, 56, 63, 95, 
96, 99, 147, 160, 218, 292, 
301, 314, 315, 317, 319, 328, 
329, 330, 331-333, 334. 

Troyes, 180. 

Urville, 368, 370. 

Vacherie, 240. 
Valognes, 137, 361, 372-373- 
Val St. Pierre, 44. 
Valtelles, Villa of, 371. 
Vannes, 31. 



Varengeville, 288, 304. 

Vauville, 368. 

Vaux, Chateau de, 244. 

Ventoux, 252. 

Verneuil, 31. 

Vernon, 42, 56, 59, IT, XQfj, 

121, 158, 159, 240, 249, 252, 

257, 258, 260. 
Vernonnet, 257. 
Versailles, 31, 32, 39. 
Vetheuil, 60. 
Veules-les-Roses, 76, 298, 

299. 
Veulettes, 297. 
Vezillon, 250. 
Villers-Cotterets, 39. 
Villers-sur-Mer, 334. 
Villerville, 331. 
Vire, 91, III, 361, 390-392. 

Yport, y6, iii, 286, 295. 
Yvetot, 31, 89, 90, 130, 309. 
310-312. 



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